BNB

Dan Leahul

Last January, I could hardly imagine myself uttering the word "twitter" without a hint sardonic irony, or even a little resentment.

However, come 2009, it's become such an important part of my daily lexicon that the actual meaning of the word is beginning to fade away in a blissful fog of web-induced ADHD.

Frankly, it's growing tiresome, saying the word. We need something new, something refreshing.

Will Twitter be as popular come 2010? Yes, very, very likely.

But what's the next scrappy up-and-comer with a catchy name and "don't know how we functioned without it" features ready to take the world by storm?

In a word, it should be: Loopt.

With the staggering number of iPhones being sold across the globe (4.4m in the past three months) Loopt will simply become essential.

Loopt is pretty cool and ridiculously easy to use, not unlike Twitter.

It shows users where friends are located and what they are doing using interactive maps on their mobile phones.

Which a lot of mobile applications are capable of. However, Loopt has the social networking zeal that any successful internet phenomenon should.

The app can detects businesses in the vicinity of you and your friends and makes a suggestion based on your preset preferences, it also recommends it to your friends, and lets your friends comment back so you can organise a get-together, for a proper boozer.

As if nipping out after work for a quick pint wasn't tempting enough, now your phone is going to tell you to as your guiltily sashay past the gym.

Oh and it's not just for the iPhone, it works with over 100 other mobile handsets as well.

The other four websites to look out for?

TV.com, which we mentioned here before, should be at least as popular as hugely popular Hulu;

Qik, a YouTube for mobilephone video is incredibly handy;

Blip.fm, Twitter-like social networking for the musically-inclined;

and finally Cooliris, image based web searching that is addictively helpful.

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