News

Use your mobile for Twitter! A little bird will tell you if you lose it...

Most people who find a lost mobile will simply report it stolen, or maybe, pocket it and say no more. But would you think of sending an SMS text to the most recent recipient? And if it were your phone, would the last address be Twitter?

According to Scott Hacker he didn't even know the phone was missing. He "checked for recent Tweets, and there was one apparently from myself." The message was an SMS reading:

Hi.i found this phone.could you tell me how to find the owner...

A few Tweets later, messages from Xian Crumlish, Michael Fitzhugh, and Dylan Tweney, pointing me to the source. A block walk and I had the phone again (which I hadn’t even realized was missing until Twitter told me). Thanks so much Good Samaritan Silje for having the brilliance to check my address book and send an SMS Tweet.

Actually, it seems Silje wasn't necessarily all that brilliant, because it isn't even clear that he knew he was texting Twitter, and he certainly didn't include enough info to enable Hacker to find him.

But it worked - and more, it alerted Wired, who did a news item on the incident. They compared Twitter favourably to Lojack.

Cheaper than a $50 subscription to Lojack? yes, perhaps! More effective? Probably not...