“Guys Near You” Since 2002
Nowadays everybody talks about GPS Positions, GeoCoordinates and GeoCoding. Back in 2002, the year our platform was founded, this topic was not as important as it is today. Let’s travel back in time for a moment…
The best selling mobile phones in 2002 were from Nokia and Siemens (we all miss the game ‘Snake’, don’t we?). We were far away from any mobile devices that enabled their owners to detect and share their GPS position. Checking into a location? Never heard of it!
So, taking this into consideration, we asked ourselves how we could organize our Romeos’ profiles to help them find each other. Manually entering your location could lead multiple different spelling variations. As a result, searching for other Romeos in a particular city could be a nightmare.
Back then, there was no simple technical solution that allowed automated detection of our Romeos’ position. So, we needed to structure our Planet ourselves. That’s why we created a hierarchal system, starting with continents and countries, moving to states and provinces then cities and even city districts. We asked each Romeo to choose their city or a city district, which automatically added him to the respective state, country and continent. All of a sudden, searching for Romeos in a specific country or even city was only one click away!
However, this system had also its disadvantages. For example, before I started working at PlanetRomeo, I used to live in Saarbrücken, Germany, which is really close to the French border. Using our Region System, I could easily find all users from Saarbrücken, but not from Behren-lès-Forbach or Sarreguemines, which are French cities only a couple of kilometers or trains stops away. C’est dommage! 🙁
Breaking down borders with RADAR
Innovation leads to change: in 2004 OpenStreetMaps went public, GoogleMaps was launched in 2005, and in 2007 Apple presented the first iPhone. Other smartphones also appeared on the market and soon the first Apps started to work with GPS coordinates. We needed an App to gather and use GPS data, so we launched the very first PlanetRomeo App!
These technologic developments and the effort we’ve put in developing a native iOS and Google App made it possible to start developing RADAR in 2010: a new and improved way to get you in touch with guys in your area; regardless of the region you’re in. Now, you can see which Romeos are online in your city or country, as well as who’s closest, which man candy might walk in the same street, or even who is at the club you are. RADAR makes it all possible. Thanks to technology!
Next time I’ll explain how RADAR works, so stay tuned…
Christian – System Owner