Originally Qiro was launched in September 2006 as an exclusively mobile information service. It offered its members individualized local assistance via mobile phone or PDA, such as events, movie times, rental bicycles or restaurant listings. Experience Qiro users could also access the actual location of buddies, when in the vicinity. To determine their location, the service depended on triangulation with nearby cell-phone transmitters, rather than using GPS.

A short while ago, Qiro launched the on-line version. The Berlin-based company Qiro GmbH announced the introduction in a recent press release. With this step, the mobile web community – which by the way was named the title “Chosen Location of 2008″ in the Land of Ideas – opens up the gates to users limited by their hardware, for whom there was no prior access to Qiro. Additionally “Qiro Online” offers a series of advantages (as opposed to the mobile version) that simplifies the user experience.

Members using PCs are now able to show up to eight Points of Interest (PoIs), and through this structure their own local search, according to the organizers. Once can add new PoIs with a mouse click, and private PoIs are able to contain substantially more information using Qiro Online, versus that possible in the mobile version. Importantly, in the PC version, it is also possible to print out lists of PoIs. And the administration of profiles is also much easier. The new version contains everything else that the mobile version contains, including the display of Buddies.

The localization of PC member functions similarly to that of the mobile application, the position of the user being determined by the location of their mobile telephone. Alternatively a user can enter a specific address or default to a previously noted location.