Dodgeball Gets a Short Code
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
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.
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My assumption has been that they didn't know what they were doing with the service for the past year. there isn't a ton of competition for them, so i don't think that they've missed the boat; i see it more as just a plain old lost opportunity.
This seems like a really solid step in the "we're going to do something with this" direction. I hope that's true.
Finally! It's too bad most of my friends already think of Dodgeball as more annoying than helpful.
i think it all depends on whether or not you actually would consider going out when you get that message. if you would then the annoyance is minor; on nights that i'm tucked in bed i generally don't need that many SMSs.
Yeah, about dodgeball and dev, it's very cumbersome to use, too little too late. As someone already mentioned, there's already better services out there. In Seattle at least there's www.where2match.com which does so much more.
I had wondered if anyone outside of New York was using it. I've seen friends in Seattle sign up for it, but no one actually use it.
-Brian
Getting a shortcode is not as easy as some of you people think. It's actually a pain in the A$$ and can be expensive. The carriers dictate who gets short codes. The carriers are also Pains in the arse and revel in archaic behavior.
That's probably why it took so long for dodgeball to get short codes.
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simon [06.02.06 12:03 AM]
I'm sorry but Dodgeball is really missing the train. Getting a shortcode now? They've should have got one long time ago and focused on product development. I haven't seen any of that in the last 12 months. What have they been up to?