Google just bought out Bump, the startup that developed a way to exchange information between phones by just bumping the two devices together, with no need to connect via NFC. As simple as that.
Bump was pretty big a few years back, and even got about 60 million downloads in 2011. But things started to slow, and the app became more of a novelty than something useful between smartphone owners. "There are two parts to Bump: the app running on your device and a smart-matching algorithm running on our servers in the cloud," the company writes on its site. "The app on your phone uses the phone's sensors to literally 'feel' the bump, and it sends that info up to the cloud. The matching algorithm listens to the bumps from phones around the world and pairs up phones that felt the same bump. Then we just route information between the two phones in each pair."
The company even tried introducing a new group photo-sharing app called Flock, and that, too, didn't develop enough of a userbase in order to get much revenue. Google's acquisition of the company pretty much saves them from the rut they were stuck in, and the difficulties that come with building a business. In all, the company had only raised about $20 million from its start. The Bump and Flock apps will remain active for now, but they'll be phased out soon enough. So, now, look for Bump technology to work its way into Android devices and OS.
[via The Verge]
