Aloqa (http://www.aloqa.com) today announced that it has integrated content from 15 publishers into its context-aware mobile application designed to let users discover their friends and favorites nearby. The Aloqa application captures user preferences and social network relationships and then proactively notifies users of interesting places, events, and Facebook friends near them. Instead of having to launch a browser or search application, users can just look at their phones and see what favorite hotspots, friends, events of interest, and recommended bargains are close by. The beta application is now available in the United States and Germany on Android and the Blackberry Curve 8900 and the Blackberry Bold 9000, with other platforms coming in the near future.

The 15 publishers being launched on Aloqa include Facebook Connect, Yelp, Eventful, last.fm, Wikipedia, Craigslist, Topix, Fon, Coulomb Technologies, GreatDad, Google Maps API, Qype, Fon, Call-A-Bike, Nestoria, and BeLocal.

Sanjeev Agrawal, CEO of Aloqa, said, “Aloqa is based on a simple premise: It is hard to search on your mobile phone. When you are on the go, you shouldn't have to constantly keep using your phone as a browser to pull information. Instead, you should just be proactively informed of relevant things around you, without entering a keyword or your location. For example with Aloqa on your phone, you don't have to touch your keyboard and will just be informed if a Facebook friend happens to be close by, that the closest Starbucks is a block away, and your favorite local jazz band is playing tonight at a pub a mile away. You can decide to hook up with your friend for the jazz show, or plan an impromptu meetup at the Starbucks. In essence, Aloqa converts your phone into a real-time context-aware assistant that gives you a personalized snapshot of your surroundings including social opportunities you would otherwise miss. And you can set it to alert you when certain friends or favorites are close by."

To see a video of Aloqa in action, go to http://www.aloqa.com.

Aloqa’s Publishing Platform

Publishers with location-relevant content can easily integrate and distribute their content on Aloqa using the company’s API. Using the API allows publishers to reach their users easily across countries and phone types without incurring the cost of having to design, build, port and maintain their content on multiple handsets.

Georg Treu, Co-Founder and CTO of Aloqa, said, "We want to provide publishers with high quality location relevant content the ability to reach users across multiple mobile platforms quickly and cost-effectively. For many publishers designing, building, distributing and maintaining an app on just one platform can get very expensive and time consuming. Aloqa gives them an alternative: Just build a channel on Aloqa and give your users access to your content without breaking the bank."

For more information on Aloqa's publisher API, please e-mail info@aloqa.com.

Publisher Reactions:

Jordan Glazier, CEO of Eventful

"We’re pleased to work with Aloqa to help their users tap into their social connections, interests, and location to determine and proactively propose which of our events listings might be of interest. Eventful provides the most comprehensive selection of concerts and events throughout the US, Europe and around the world."

Paul Banas, CEO of GreatDad

"GreatDad.com has developed an ‘Out and About’ section on our website to help dads find fun things to do with their kids. But a lot of dads plan while they are on the go. How can they figure out what to do when they are aren't near a computer? Guys don’t ask for directions, and it's hard to fire up a mobile browser to research things to do with their kids. That's why we partnered with Aloqa. Their technology matches a dad’s location with kid-friendly sites and activities in real time and pushes those suggestions to the mobile phone. Dad sees a list of places to go that are close and convenient. What could be easier?”

Stephen Taylor, CEO of Qype

“Aloqa is adding a new dimension to our content by allowing us to push out coupons and other merchant content to users across various mobile platforms and phone types to users when it matters most - when the user is close to the merchant. Also, users can also send recommendations and comments about the business to their friends in real time and make use of social opportunities they can see on the Aloqa Buzz / Facebook channel. Such integrated real time location based content push on mobile phones is very unique and useful.”

Photos

http://www.aloqa.com/Press-Kit/

Coverage of Aloqa:

• VentureBeat: Aloqa Wins MobileBeat 2009 Tesla Award http://venturebeat.com/2009/07/16/iq-engines-aloqa-win-mobilebeat-tesla-awards/
• ReadWriteWeb: Mobile Search Gets a "Push": Aloqa's Location-Aware App Debuts

  http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/mobile_search_gets_a_push_aloqas_location-aware_app.php

• TechCrunch: Former Googler Sanjeev Agrawal To Lead Just-Funded Mobile Search Startup Aloqa
  http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/07/16/former-googler-sanjeev-agrawal-to-lead-just-funded-mobile-search-startup-aloqa/
• Local Mobile Web: Aloqa: App Store within an App Store Goes Live

  http://localmobilesearch.net/news/local-search/aloqa-app-store-within-app-store-goes-live

About Aloqa:

Aloqa is the first company in the world to integrate location and context relevant "push" with social networking and the physical world on mobile devices. Aloqa’s application for mobile phones pushes notifications in real-time about nearby events and social opportunities - with relevancy based on the user’s current location, pre-defined interests, and social networks. Aloqa has offices in Palo Alto, California, and Munich, Germany. More information about Aloqa can be found at http://www.aloqa.com.

Facebook® is a registered trademark of Facebook Inc.

Connect with Aloqa:

• Twitter http://twitter.com/aloqahq
• Facebook http://www.facebook.com/pages/Aloqa/93595048591
• Screen shots can be found at http://www.aloqa.com/Press-Kit/
• Aloqa Blog: http://blog.aloqa.com