This just goes to show that developing a unique idea that creates a community with a service that people can get behind can make you a success. Today, Google acquired its thirteenth third party company when they bought Dodgeball.com. If you are unfamiliar with Dodgeball’s service, here is a rundown:

Dodgeball is a service designed to get you in face-to-face contact with friends, friends of friends, and even crushes. All that is required is a cell phone with text messaging. You sign up for an account and give Dodgeball a list of email addresses for your friends. These people become a part of your network, as do any friends that they recommend when they sign up. The fun begins when you are out and about. You simply send a text message to Dodgeball as follows:

To: YourCity@dodgeball.com
Message: @NameLocation

Now, Dodgeball is available cost-free in just about every major US city. So if I were doing this from Seattle, I would send a text message to seattle@dodgeball.com, and if I were at the Space Needle then my message would be “@Space Needle”. Now Dodgeball goes to work. Any of my friends who are within a 10 block radius recieve an email and/or text message telling them “Your friend Andru is at Space Needle [address here]. Why not stop by and say hi?” It is simple a great meetup tool. Now, you can format your message in different ways so that instead of contacting your friends, it will send you back a list of friends of friends in the area. You can even just typ in a destination, and it will send you a message back telling you the address and cross streets. Google obviously aw the potential in this service, as have many of its users. If you live in a major US city, check them out at www.dodgeball.com.