Popularitydialer.com hits a small hangup

In the early issues of .TXT, we ran a short item on the cool little site Popularitydialer.com. Well, whatever happened to Popularitydialer?

It was the first service that allowed people to pre-arrange a phone call to one’s own cell phone.

If you feared that first date would go bad, you had Popularitydialer call your phone at 10 p.m., and you had an excuse to leave.

Sadly, the service has been shut down indefinitely.

Its Web site explains the FCC has filed a cease-and-desist order, claiming the phone service violated a federal law.

The site’s organizers say they’re appealing, but until matters clear they’re keeping it inactive.

Several similar services are still running, but most (like iping.com or telepixie.com) are wake-up callers.