People were talking about Brightkite on the internet a while before I decided to give it a whirl. Having read many reviews saying it was just a Twitter clone with Google Maps added, the invite laid dormant in my inbox for quite a few weeks (Brightkite was in a private beta, meaning you need an invite to use it’s service).
One day I decided to sign up and see what all the fuss was about, at first I don’t think I was glad I did. The service itself is very very similar to Twitter, the premise is to “Check In” where you are and share a note or a photo. Being honest, I couldn’t see it replacing Twitter for my social updates.
That was until I found out about the Brightkite iPhone app. Downloading and installing this baby really showed the power and usefulness of the Brightkite service. Being out and about, you could “Check In” from various locations, finding other users who were in the same location as you. This of course meant you could share photos, allowing users to comment and give you their interpretation of what you were seeing. Upon joining, I was instantly befriended and welcomed to the service. I imported my friends from Twitter and found out many others were enjoying the service.
One of the most useful features is the ability to share your Brightkite updates via your Twitter stream. When you check in, write a note or share a photo, it can be synced to your Twitter feed, so that your friends on either service can interact with you. This for me has made it my second most used app on my iPhone, a close second to the Ping.fm service.
If you have an account with Brightkite and iPhone, I suggest you try this baby out.
