Site helps friends meet up spontaneously

Much the way Plancast lets friends share location-based social plans on the fly, so Poig aims to make it easier for people to socialize offline on the spur of the moment. Users of San Francisco-based Poig begin by signing up with the free service through Facebook Connect. From there, they can create and view “pings” with suggestions for something to do — grab a beer, for instance, or see a movie. Pings can be restricted to friends or shared with everyone on the site; they can also be broadcast via Facebook and Twitter. Pings are viewable by location as well, enabling users to look for ideas for something fun to do in their area. When a Poig user sees an idea they like, they can comment and indicate that they’ll join the activity. Poig is currently working on SMS integration and a mobile app, it says. Meanwhile, it’s rich with possibilities for highly targeted advertising and promotion, as noted on Killer Startups. A mass-mingling enabler to experiment with in your neck of the woods? (Related: Five online services for getting together offline — ‘Social concierge’ helps find new friends, not dates.) Spotted by: Cecilia Biemann