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"Highlight, the frictionless proximity-based auto-social network, was SXSW\u2019s belle of the ball. By Mashable\u2019s own measure, nothing else had more buzz. \nIt has nearly Pinterest-level heat around it. That kind of interest is good, but now, with the Austin-based event over, it\u2019s time to take stock of the latest App darling.\nIf you\u2019re not familiar with Highlight, here\u2019s the rundown: download the free iPhone-only app, sign-in with your Facebook ID and then let Highlight find other users nearby who are either your friends, share your interests or are friends of your friends. By default, it shows you everyone who is in some way connected to your Facebook network via shared interests. \nWhen you are near them \u2014 within a 100 meters or so \u2014 Highlight sends a push notification and offers the ability to connect (with a message) or highlight (a subtle endorsement). It\u2019s on a competitive plane with apps such as Sonar, Glancee and Banjo (load them all on your phone and it will never stop buzzing). Highlight\u2019s developers call it a sixth sense app. I\u2019d say it\u2019s digital serendipity.\nCo-founder and CEO Paul Davison recently sat down with Mashable to talk about what\u2019s next for the growing social network and how he views privacy concerns, including some of the recent difficulties faced by others in the \u201Cnear-you\u201D space.\nSome people have called Highlight creepy because you can suss out connections that happen to be near you, whether or not they want to contacted by you. Davison counters that Highlight offers users complete control. There\u2019s an easy-to-find pause button (I found and used it easily) and though Highlight defaults to \u201CEveryone,\u201D you can damp the app down to only allow connections with Friends of Friends.\nDavison is not denying that you do cede some of your privacy if you use Highlight and other social media platforms like it, but he added that you have to weigh the social benefits of using Highlight against the cost of giving up a little bit of your privacy. The CEO has more than a few tales of heartwarming, charming and useful interactions enabled by Highlight \u2014 though one he shared with me was rather playful and maybe a tiny bit\u2026er\u2026creepy. \nHe said he and a friend were at a lunch when they noticed through Highlight that a connection was nearby. They looked around the restaurant and, sure enough, there was the guy, who looked like the guy in his avatar on Highlight. He was wearing sunglasses, so Davison's friend sent him a message that said, \u201CNice sunglasses.\u201D The guy saw the note in his Highlight inbox and started searching for who was watching him. Eventually he saw Davison and his friend. They all ended up chatting together (most of Davison\u2019s stories end this way).\nIt\u2019s a slightly creepy scenario, but Davison told me that, as with most new social technologies, the initial response is, \u201CWhoa, creepy.\u201D Yet, there will always be some who see the potential. Davison thinks his app will spread virally through people who appreciate it and eventually reach those who, at least initially, may not. It\u2019s unlikely, though, that Highlight will stand still and wait for people to catch up. Davison talked about some possible future feature enhancements.\nHighlight may, for example, eventually start overlaying other contextual information: whether you've been to a place before, whether it's daytime or nighttime (are  you heading into work or heading home), whether you commuting on a train or driving to work, or whether you in a supermarket or in a bar. Depending on your activities, the Highlight information could be different. None of this is happening right now, but when it does, it could radically change the way we think about location-based platforms.\nIt occurred to me that, even in its current incarnation, Highlight is collecting a fair amount of information about your locations and interactions (who you were near yesterday, today, now and where you were throughout the day), and I reminded Davison about the trouble Path ran into when the world learned it was holding onto too much address book data. He told me that, right now, the information Highlight learns is on the startup's servers, but quickly added that Highlight has a privacy policy that spells out exactly what Highlight can and can\u2019t do with the data. \u201COur top priority is to earn users\u2019 trust. We err more on the conservative side,\u201D Davison said.\nWith all this data about people, interests and very local information, I wondered what Highlight might do with it all in the future. Is there a hyper-local, group-based deal-play in the works? Davison said no. \u201CFor us, it would be a defocusing\u2026.Fundamentally the only thing we care about is the people.\u201D\nHighlight is free, and there is no obvious revenue play. Davison thinks it\u2019s all about critical mass. He told me there\u2019s tremendous value in a platform that can give you a \u201Csixth sense\u201D about the world around you. Wouldn\u2019t a recruiter love to learn that a viable job candidate is right nearby? \u201CIsn\u2019t that valuable?\u201D Davison asked me. He also said that finding a potential love interest or even an app developer very near you (and ones that you have some sort of connection to) could be valuable, as well. That\u2019s not exactly a clear strategy for revenue, but for now Davison is happy to work on building that critical mass.\nHave you tried Highlight yet? I\u2019ve been using it and am often startled at the connections I\u2019ve made and the random contacts that are closer to me than I might otherwise think. So what about you? Is Highlight creepy or cool? Share it all in the comments."^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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