Gaia Online gets more than teen visitors

The first obvious feature about Gaia Online, a new social network site for young people, is the predominance of graphics and images. Developed with a clear affinity to Japanese anime, Gaia Online has a comic book feeling, which is to say it’s both inviting and entertaining to visit.

Despite the Asian influences, the company is totally a product of Silicon Valley. It now has somewhere near 2 million visits per month and seems to be attracting teens mostly but also a cross-section of curious geeks and adult wannabes.

Gaia Online is a series of virtual towns where your chosen Gaian avatar can socialize with others (up to 100 in a single space), or visit apartments they can own and treasures they can find. No fighting or hostility is permitted. While people can visit and live in virtual Gaia, other members can simply visit each others’ profiles, comment on artwork there, or just search for a lively topic to discuss.

Search for mobile phones

A number of companies make it simple to find addresses and phone numbers, maps or other details of a location.

Tellme.com, a Silicon Valley company with a number of interesting features, was just acquired by Redmond-based Microsoft.

Another Seattle firm with similar business plans is Medio Systems.

And don’t forget the ever-present Google. Google has a test-version of Google Voice Local Search, at http://labs.google.com /goog411.

In all three flavors, anyone using a cell phone calls the search number and either types a text version of a search term or speaks it directly. For instance, call Tellme and say “Starbucks, Spokane, Wash.”

The free automated service reads back a set of answers, offering numbers and addresses for all the Starbucks found within Spokane County. If you want the map to any or all of them, just say “text map” and Tellme sends you a map of the site you’ve selected.