One Step Closer To The Electronic Thumb

Actually, your cellphone probably looks like an electronic thumb already. We mention the cellphone, because you'll need it to text your way into your new carpooler's lifestyle.

Alan Durning did a Daily Score post about Seattle's Goose Networks the other day, and at first we thought, huh, no way.

Now we've looked into it (i.e., visited their site), and maybe it's not so crazy. Basically, you join the service, and then when you need a ride somewhere, you text Goose Networks with your destination. Then an underpaid algorithm sorts through where other people say they're going, matches you up with your best bet, and delivers directions on how to meet up.

We understand it's not legal to be paid for giving rides to strangers unless your car is a taxi cab, so the carrot here for drivers is that the passenger splits the bill for gas. This all happens back on Goose Networks servers -- no money changes hands in the car. (Though as we type this, we can imagine a lot of fascinating entrepreneurial uses for a system where two people get into a car and a fee is deducted from a server located elsewhere.)

And of course driver and passenger would enjoy the benefits of the HOV lane -- primarily, make rude gestures to everyone parked in traffic. Seems like it ought to be appealing, especially for Microsofties and Boeingers, who have an insta-network already.

A much more informal system of this is in place on the Berkeley-to-San Francisco commute; people just meet up at "casual carpools." But they're all hippies down there and probably know each other from the community hot tub. How excited will Seattle drivers be at having someone they don't know spill a venti all over the back seat?