RadiusIM is a web application that uses Google Maps to show the location of registered users. A contact list is available, and users can communicate through AIM, MSN, Yahoo! and GTalk IM services. Every user can publish a profile and also show an avatar.

RadiusIM is an example of a well-done location-based presence service, perhaps with some limitations. I’ve found difficult to identify my location (except of setting it manually), while Google Maps finds Cagliari, Italy very easily. Why don’t they get my connection IP and just set my location automatically?

From another point of view, this kind of services faces a solution to improve instant communication starting from user’s location, but in my opinion this is not in general the dominant information. Interoperation between IM services and Google Maps is interesting, but I see with more interest proximity detection, that is the ability to recognize that someone is near a particular shop, or in a room inside a building, and mobile devices able to publish this information and also to set their status automatically according to detected position.

Looking for some other comments, I have found this post. Pete Cashmore writes:

… my biggest question is whether people really want to connect with others just because they’re in the same area. The whole point of IM and social networking is that it’s just as easy to speak to someone on the other side of the world as it is to speak to someone in your street – that leads to people forming groups around interest areas, rather than geographies.

As I wrote above, I agree with him, and I’d add that if most users login from home, location information is too few dynamic and not so much useful.

Finally, I like RadiusIM for its graphics and page update technology.

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