If broadcasting your daily activities through Twitter and Facebook are not enough social networking for you, then Buddy comes to the rescue. The purpose of Buddy is to connect people based on shared interests.

The free service is angling for a more interactive, real-time user experience. Setting up your account includes the standard list of preferences and status messages to choose from; including your age, marital/relationship status, interests, and many others.

The most important choice in Buddy is what kind of buddy you are looking for. If you are an avid jogger, choose jogging buddy. Perhaps you are looking for someone to play video games with; pick gaming buddy. For the travel minded choose travel buddy (though personally I would recommend getting to know someone a bit before going on a trip). Once your profile is set then by tapping Buddy List you will see a list of buddies that you can interact with based on your shared love of golf or dating.

Location plays a prominent role in Buddy. By using the iPhone’s GPS capabilities you can have Buddy broadcast your location. If you are feeling a bit squeamish about being this available to strangers, you can opt for “Celebrity Mode,” which randomizes your location within a square mile of where you really are. This way you can be found in local search results. Or if you you really want to stay off the grid, opt for “Prime Minister mode.” This keeps you from being found on the Buddy Map, which is a real-time location of Buddy users logged on to the service.

Buddy is a service worth toying around with if you eat up the social networking environment. But in order for Buddy to succeed it would probably benefit from some deeper integration with some of the existing social networking tools. But who knows — maybe there are plenty of people who need a buddy.

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category: Best Free Apps, Social Nets, Social Networking