 | |
| Genre | Social networking |
|---|---|
| Founded | 2000 |
| Founder | Dennis Crowley andAlex Rainert |
| Defunct | Shut down in February 2009 |
| Fate | acquired byGoogle in 2005 |
| Successors | Google Latitude,Foursquare |
Key people | Dennis Crowley and Alex Rainert |
| Owner | |
Dodgeball was a location-basedsocial networkingsoftware provider formobile devices. Userstexted their locations to the service, which then notified them of crushes, friends, friends' friends, and interesting venues nearby.Google acquired Dodgeball in 2005 and discontinued it in 2009, replacing it withGoogle Latitude.[1]
Dodgeball was founded in 2000 byNew York University studentsDennis Crowley andAlex Rainert. The keep company was acquired by Google in 2005.[2] In April 2007, Crowley and Rainert left Google, with Crowley describing their experience there as "incredibly frustrating".[3] After leaving Google, Crowley created a similar service known asFoursquare with the help ofNaveen Selvadurai.[4]
Dodgeball was available for the cities ofSeattle,Portland,San Francisco,Los Angeles,Las Vegas,San Diego,Phoenix,Dallas–Fort Worth,Austin,Houston,New Orleans,Miami,Atlanta,Washington, D.C.,Philadelphia,New York City,Boston,Detroit,Chicago,Madison,Minneapolis–St. Paul andDenver.
In January 2009,Vic Gundotra, Vice President of Engineering at Google, announced that the company would "discontinue Dodgeball.com in the next couple of months, after which this service will no longer be available."[5] Dodgeball was shut down and succeeded in February 2009 byGoogle Latitude.[6] Google Latitude was eventually shut down in 2013.
