MSearchGroove

Proxpro, a provider of proximity mobile search, made its mark in 2004 when it broke on the scene with the industry’s first mobile social networking product (using location information) to target prosumers. (In a nutshell, this matchmaking service lets professionals find and meet people nearby who matter. Its patented technology and algorithms discover people nearby who match pre-specified interests. The service then sends a text message to both and, if both agree, a face-to-face meeting can take place within minutes.)

The service got a real boost last June when Proxpro turbo-charged its social networking capabilities by partnering with Zoom Information, the company behind ZoomInfo, a B2B search engine that continually scans the Web to create individual summaries of people and companies. This smart move resulted in Research People, a product launched on Sprint and Cingular in the U.S., which allows users to access employment histories, bios and photographs from ZoomInfo’s B2B search engine by inputting the person’s name. To date the service counts some 2,200 paying customers. It’s a solid start – but nothing compared to what Proxpro can achieve when it launches this week as an ad-funded D2C (or rather D2B) offer free of charge to business users on-the-move. (BTW: You’re reading it here first.)

Always happy for a reason to speak with Julian Bourne, Proxpro CEO and Founder, I called him to find out more about the launch and his vision for location-based matchmaking and mobile search services going forward. First, some details about the service. Julian tells me the new products “not only enables you to search for people you’re going to meet; but you can also reach out to new people through a search and track those emails – all from your mobile phone.” The service, which is ad-funded, will be free to start – with some premium charge for “the ability to message someone through your mobile.”

Listen to the podcast here.

Birds of a feather: This is people search on steroids. “You’re going to be able to reach out to people that you’re searching [for] from your mobile phone by just knowing their name. We’re also including ease of use features to enable you to reference people who might be at the same conference as you, or that you know that you’re going to be meeting throughout the day or at a social occasion, so you can quickly look at your mobile phone and quickly analyze what the important points of affinity [are] between you and the person that you’re going to be meeting face to face.” BTW: The information users search is the database of 36+ million professionals that ZoomInfo has gleaned from .com .org and .edu across Europe and the U.S. The results cover a range of foreign languages as well – with more in the works.

High-net worth: Julian got the idea to go ad-funded after seeing significant growth in the usage stats. The users may not be in the millions, but they use the service frequently to prepare for business meetings and connect at conferences. “We’re getting a lot of page views from our customers. We know who they are and we know the types of people they’re meeting with, [and] they’re very much high-value targets for other advertisers.” But the enthusiasm over ad revenues doesn’t upstage the paramount importance of personal privacy. Proxpro doesn’t release personally identifiable information, which means they hide the email address of the sender from the recipient, for example. Moreover, Proxpro charges users who use the service to send an email – making it unattractive to spammers.

The lure of location: Julian isn’t talking so much about the location-based features of this new service. But you can bet that the company – which recently won accolades at Navteq 2006 – has this high on the radar. “We believe that the “friendfinder” application is very compelling for youths, but not for adults. So what we’re doing is wrapping that service with other content- so that the value proposition of the other content is compelling - and then adding this as a feature with it. We’re not releasing that product just yet.”

Situation awareness: Delivering mobile content, apps and advertising according to the individual user’s profile and past preferences is good, but delivering offers in tune with other factors such as workflow, time of day and location is better. This is why Julian has sharpened his focus on what he calls a more “situation-aware” approach. “We believe in a new paradigm in mobile….[Situation-aware is] basically a mobile representation and understanding of objects and people and interaction that are affecting human performance in complex and dynamic tasks.” Against this backdrop, the focus is to “put together experiences to help [our] customers perform better in the workplace.”

NOTE: Granted, this may seem a bit vague – but we’ll know lots more when the service launches. Julian, who is an avid fan of MSG from day one, is offering MSG readers the exclusive opportunity to use the beta version of the service until August 13 free of charge. Just go to wap.proxpro.com to get started – and let us know what you think.

• Posted in
• Mobile Social Networking, Web 2.0, Personalization, Mobile Search, Local Search, Mobile Advertising, Podcasts

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