As far as iPhone apps go, social networking applications are pretty sedate. Not boring, but sedate. Nevertheless social networking is still a market growing from strength to strength; iPling is the iPhone’s attempt at an app made specifically for the 3G iphone. These iPhone apps are trying to hit a very unique market with a very unique product; they need to approach common problems in a different way, and iPling does this with flying colors.

The iPling approach is, to start with, quite similar to other social networking applications: you fill in your profile and specify the things that you’re interested in. So far so normal.

Then the magic that is present in almost all iPhone apps kicks in. You tag your interests and profile with colors and keywords. This allows the iPling software to measure just how compatible you might be with other users; if it decides that you are compatible with others then you will appear in their iPling ‘circle’. Once ‘in the circle’ you can contact other users via SMS without them knowing your phone number (or indeed you theirs). This kind of security is more vital in iPhone apps than it would be on software for a computer (since a phone points to an actual, physical object).