As I’ve mentioned before, I’m a fan of SMS services. One of the first that I ever used regularly was Dodgeball, the Google-acquired, social check-in service. Previously, to interact with the service you had to SMS or email @dodgeball.com – a problematic process on some phones and networks. Now you can text 36343 (DODGE) to let your friends know your location . This will make the service much more accessible.
I’ve been assuming that Google would add a short code to the service, but I assumed that it would be an extension of their search short code GOOGL. I wonder why they chose this route. Do they want to build the Dodgeball brand? (I like the fact that Google tends to keep acquired brands alive.) Were they afraid of alienating the existing user base? Or were they guarding against future syntax overlaps? Whatever the answer I’m glad to see some sign of life in this product – perhaps now it will get added to Stalkerati.