It may be the ultimate social networking challenge. We've all driven around parking lots and just as we are about to finally pull into a space, someone we hadn't even seen grabs the spot.
But now there's an app for that.
Googlelabs recently released Open Spot -- an experimental app only for Android 2.0 users -- designed to help drivers find available parking spaces. As you leave a parking space, you tap a button that locates the space on a Google map so others also using the app can identify potential spaces within an almost one mile radius. Echoing video game concepts, people who post availability of spaces earn Karma Points and those who are found to be entering bogus openings are called "griefers."
Unfortunately, while the app identifies a possible parking space, there's no guarantee that the space will still be available when you find it. And it assumes that enough Android users will be in a concentrated area to make it relevant.
I can't wait to read about the first parking lot accident blamed on two drivers, both peering at their cell phones, collide on their way to an available space.
Seriously, the concept of this new app suggests an interesting shift. So many apps are designed just for personal use and/or pleasure. The fundamental concept of Open Spot, whether it ever gets significant traction on its own, suggests that apps can be used for the good of society. Now that's a concept that's worth considering.