Turkcell, a communications and technology company in Turkey, announced today that it has developed one of the world's first location-based Web 2.0 micro-blogging platforms. "Gezenzi", which roughly translates as "share traces of your life", launches today and is a permission-based service which enables members to use a Gezenzi map to exchange information about places they encounter in their daily lives and travels.
On a Gezenzi map, users share location information by keying in text, comments and even multi-media content (including images and – shortly – audio and video files). This information could be about restaurants, travel, beaches, the weather, sports, recommendations, etc, in any particular place in the world. Users can micro-blog information via SMS/MMS, mobile phones or the Web and can track the latest movements and comments of other Gezenzi subscribers. Blog entries on Gezenzi will appear based on specific locations rather than on when they were posted.
Cenk Bayrakdar, Turkcell's Chief Product and Service Management Officer, noted that: "Turkcell is delighted to be launching this innovative new service. We have no doubt that it will be very well-received and become a much-used application for micro-bloggers both here in Turkey and on their travels worldwide. We would encourage people to visit the Gezenzi website and find out more. With around a dozen mobile services applications as of March 31st 2010, Turkcell continues to lead the way in the development of Turkish mobile technology. I would like to thank my Turkcell colleagues for their continued innovative thinking and cutting-edge work.''
By the end of 2010, Gezenzi is expected to also be available to users in English through some Turkcell subsidiaries such as life:) in Ukraine.