Note: Click on pic to enlarge.
Finally, a real use for social networking. A website called SendMeHome.com lets users register their treasures and offer rewards (or not) to people who return them. The users can also create collaborative blogs about physical objects. To help get users on line, so to speak, the group is making its free service available to 175 million Facebook users with a Facebook app.
According to the service, which started last year, 94 percent of people surveyed said they would return a standard mobile phone if they found one. Isn't that nice of them? Only 88 percent would return an iPhone. By my calculation, that makes iPhones fomenters of theft and corrupters of morals. But I’m biased.
The service works similar to the commercial one, StuffBak, but it's free. The plan is to put a SendMeHome ID on your valuables - cell phones, laptops or what have you – so if they go missing, the finders can easily contact you through the SendMeHome website. You register your item with SendMeHome.com to get an ID number for it. Virtually anything can be registered, including the frivolous. You can mark (permanently!) the ID on the item, cross-stitch it onto garments, or spend four bucks on the website to get special stickers. The service has a deal with an engraver, too, for those inclined to super-permanence.
The IDs are transferable, if you sell or donate the item, and you can reuse them for other stuff if you discard its original target. You can offer a reward, or not. If the item is found, communication about it goes through a website that protects your identity and information. Nice!
For more information, and for a laugh at the less-than-serious other services and some more social networking minutia, check out SendMeHome.com. The company's offering cash prizes for creativity in its "Stories" section. They define creativity as bringing in lots of people to read the stories. Wonder if the Pulitzer committee knows about this.
