E-mail was the "killer app" on the Internet, and it looks like e-mail will be the killer app in the wireless world as well.
But just as e-mail evolved for the wired devices that used it, e-mail capabilities will also have to transform again for the wireless crowd. Today, I got a little glimpse of the future from a company called iVolio.
iVolio specialises in what it calls "keyword-based information retrieval," which is a fancy way of saying query and scripting -- which is a complex way of saying, using e-mail to pull information from the various Web sites and databases on the Net. Seeing, however, is believing, so fire up your e-mail program as you read this for a very exciting real-time demonstration.
HALiBOT knows
iVolio's first product is called HALiBOT. HALiBOT is a database of specialty e-mail addresses you can access via any e-mail program (or via a Web site). Try this simple example: Send an e-mail to population@halibot.com and then enter "San Francisco" in the subject line, or the name of another American city. Leave the body of the message blank and hit Send. In seconds you'll get back the latest census figures for that city.
The range of these powerful little data extractors is amazing. You can find out real-time flight information, leading economic indicators, nearby restaurants, maps, movie show times, and on and on. For the complete list, send e-mail to topics@halibot.com, and leave the subject and body blank.
Going wireless
Using e-mail to surf the Web is cute, and it can save time, but it's also redundant when you can fire up your browser and jump to your favourite sites. And that's where the wireless hook comes in. Adding HALiBOT to a two-way pager means you now can get fast answers to your questions as well as access to the Web's top sites -- without having to use a browser or even a PC. It's a solution perfectly suited to devices that don't do well with a lot of data input, where minimal typing is key.
For example, I borrowed an R.I.M. Blackberry pager and began tracking my sister and brother-in-law's flight arrival time to San Francisco this past Friday night. San Francisco's airport has the honour of having the worst arrival time record in the United States, and combined with the country's Labor Day weekend, I was desperate to avoid racing to the airport and then sitting there for 3 hours.
With all the HALiBOT e-mails pre-loaded in my pager, I chose "Flightstatus" by scrolling the list with the thumb-wheel on the pager; I only had to type in "Southwest 91" in the subject line and then hit Send. In less than one minute I was tracking the flight from Phoenix to SFO with amazing precision. I knew when they were over Fremont (and I knew that miraculously, the flight was on time).
Hang up and send
The squeamish of you should look away at this next part, because I did all this real-time flight tracking while driving through the city and talking on my car's speaker phone. Regardless of the chill that image may send thorough us all, the fact remained that using e-mail with a wireless device was dramatically enhanced by the HALiBOT approach.
There was no Web surfing or typing long addresses and body text. I just punched in a few characters and hit Send. Once I had sent in the first message, I only had to hit re-send for each subsequent flight update. Typing required: zero.
This simple little technology is what going wireless is all about. Think about how tied we are right now to our wired connections, even with mobiles and pagers.
Right now, we're so happy that the Web has driving directions, but we print out a crude map, fold it up and take it with us when we leave our PCs, turning the digital back into something an old road map from the '50s did better.
But what about the traffic report, or the sports scores you missed, or even a last minute need for the local sales tax and a good nearby restaurant?
Wireless is about instant access anywhere and any time. And even though we're using Dark Ages components right now, it's wonderful to see that little glimmer from the future and how getting information won't matter where or when you want it, or even what device you're using.
It just needs to be everywhere and in many forms, and HALiBOT is a simple little way to sample some of that right now. Let me know what you think in the TalkBacks below.
Alice Hill was the vice president of development and editorial director for CNet. She welcomes your comments and e-mails.
