PhoobyBook introduces TouchTwits for NFC-based social networking

Italian start-up FreeAccess has developed a new service that enables users to send each other Twitter-like NFC-based short messages by simply tapping their NFC handset over a friend’s phone.

TouchTwits are part of a new service called PhoobyBook that allows users to manage multiple social web identities in a single SIM-based application that stores profiles, preferences and contacts associated with each of the users’ web identities.

“All this information can be immediately exported or imported to/from existing services (eg Facebook, MySpace, etc), creating what we call user profile portability: having one identity independent of how many communities the user belongs to,” say FreeAccess’ founders Alessandro Cilardo and Luigi Esposito.

“In addition, PhoobyBook provides personal messaging, mobile microblogging, etc, which may be seamlessly linked to their Internet-based counterpart (Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, etc),” the founders explain. “Furthermore, based on peer-to-peer NFC interaction, PhoobyBook lets users exchange short messages by proximity, i.e. by tapping their handset over a friend’s phone. These short messages, called TouchTwits, establish restricted and more intimate relationships between groups of users, creating new, compelling interaction forms.”

The service is one of ten shortlisted for the 2010 Simagine awards and is being demonstrated at the Sophia Antipolis Pavilion at the Mobile World Congress this week. The winner will be announced on 20 April.

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