The Social Networking Tag

Chances are, you've heard about social networking, the craze of the moment among the PC industry cognoscenti. Over the past year, more than half a dozen new companies have introduced Web services designed to expand your network of relationships, introducing you to new people through the people you already know.

Different sites serve different markets. Services like LinkedIn or Ryze build professional relationships, helping you get a new job, hire a new employee, or hunt down a new business partner. Others, like Friendster and Friendzy, build personal relationships, helping you find a date or a new group of friends. But each builds on the same core idea. Having joined one of these sites, you send a message to several people you know, asking them to join. They, in turn, invite several people they know, and so on. Before long, the site has constructed a vast network of individuals you have personal links to, which becomes a vehicle for interacting with all sorts of new people.

nTAG, a new company based in Manhattan, takes a very different approach to computer-enhanced social networking. Rather than using the Internet to expand your relationships, nTAG uses interactive name badges to facilitate introductions and conversations at business conferences and conventions.

If you've ever attended such an event, you know how difficult it can be to meet new people, find out what you have in common, and realize what you can do for each other. The initial introduction is awkward. The small talk is endless. And unless you're lucky, you never get to the meat of the conversation.

nTAG seeks to change all this with its badges, PDA-like devices equipped with black-and-white LCD displays and infrared ports. When you attend an nTAG event, you're given a badge preloaded with a fair amount of information about who you are and what you're trying to accomplish. You hang the roughly 6-ounce device around your neck, and whenever you approach someone new, your badges communicate, quickly determining what the you have in common. "Hi, Bartleby, I'm Herman," your badge might say. "We both work for the postal service." Or "Hi, Buffy, I'm Stewart, you're looking for a marketing guru. I am one."