主题：【酷】手机就近找朋友 -- 林小筑

Just hours after he subscribed, Mr. Battjer, 27, received his first Dodgeball message: Alyssa, a friend of his friend Greg, it read, was at Luna Lounge, only two blocks away. Mr. Battjer had never met Alyssa, but inspired by the thumbnail-size picture sent with the message, he decided to find her. The two met and shared laughs over their mutually "dorky" fascination with technology, he said.

When members want others to know their whereabouts, they use their cellphone to send a text message (like "@ Luna Lounge'') to the Dodgeball e-mail address for their respective city, like nyc@dodgeball .com. The service matches the location in its database of geocoded bars and restaurants, and sends an automated text message with the user's name and location and a head shot to all of their Dodgeball friends, as well as any friends of friends who have checked in within a 10-block radius.

Others join Dodgeball to meet new people. Pictures sent with Dodgeball messages help users spot one another in a crowd, or act as an incentive for on-the-prowl singles to meet friends of a friend. Mr. Battjer says he feels comfortable meeting up with the 90 friends of friends on his Dodgeball network because each is directly connected to at least one of his 16 Dodgeball friends. At Friendster, friends of friends can be estranged by six degrees of separation, but Dodgeball allows only two degrees of separation.