Friend trackers let you be a modern anthropologist, tagging and tracking your Fpals by location and activity. Loopt, the best of these apps, works by showing registered, connected users on a map. Tap each one for a status update and maybe even a photo they provide. Don't want to be trackable? Just leave Loopt closed. It won't track you unless it's open.
If you can get enough friends onboard, Loopt acts like a visual Twitter 2.0. Instead of just feeding you updates, it creates a sense of closeness and the thrill of a potential meet-up. We didn't like the invasive posting of birthdates, however, or the substandard integration with Facebook, but for sheer banishment of the loneliness of existential despair, Loopt scores high marks. If only Edvard Munch had Loopt, The Scream could have looked like a '70s smiley face.
