After its release on Sprint last year, it is now Verizon Wireless' turn to launch the Loopt location-based social service for its customers. The service will be available in April 2008 to Verizon Wireless' subscribers with Get It Now-enabled phones.

The Loopt service allows users to share location information, status messages and geo-tagged photos with their community of friends, all from their GPS-enabled mobile phones. Loopt users can view where their friends are located via a map displayed on their mobile phones and connect and share their locations with anyone in their address books or AIM buddy lists. In addition, users can create journals for their friends to see, establish rendezvous points, get notification alerts when friends are nearby and send messages to all the friends in a selected range.

"Location is the redefining element of mobile communication and the consumer experience. Location interoperability and accessibility is the gateway that extends the reach, value and power of mobile devices for all consumers," said Sam Altman, chief executive officer and co-founder of Loopt. "In co-operation with Verizon Wireless, we are laying the foundation for mass consumer awareness and adoption of Loopt location-based services with a focus on user privacy and security."

The Loopt service takes care of users' privacy, ensuring that only their friends from the same private network can see their location. Moreover, users can choose to turn location-sharing on or off whenever they desire for all friends at once or only for certain friends.

The Loopt service will become available to Verizon Wireless' customers beginning April 2008, and it will be compatible with more than 20 Get It Now-enabled phones, including the Chocolate by LG, the MOTORIZR Z6tv and Verizon Wireless G'zOne Type-S. To use the service users will have to sign up for a monthly subscription of $3.99/month plus data charges.