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SANTA BARBARA, CALIF. -- You could call it social networking for dogs, but you'd be wrong. In reality, it's social networking for you, but using your dog as a "friend finder." A new product called the SNIF tag clips onto your dog's collar. When your dog interacts with another dog that also has the collar, it introduces you to that dog's owner online.

John Steinbeck's travelogue, "Travels with Charley: In Search of America," extols the merits of using a dog to meet people. Charley was the author's poodle. Steinbeck referred to Charley as his "ambassador," because the dog served as an instant icebreaker, a way to strike up conversations with strangers.

That was 1960. Now it's nearly 2009, and we have social networking services for making friends. According to a company called SNIF Labs, however, dogs still have a role to play.

Here's how it works. After attaching the SNIF Tag hardware to your dog's collar, you can log onto your account at the sniftag.com site. There, you can see your dog's activity level -- the SNIF Tag uses an accelerometer as a kind of pedometer. It also shows you the profiles of the people who own dogs your own pooch interacted with -- as long as they have a SNIF Tag, too.

Later, when your dog runs into another SNIF Tag-wearing dog it has interacted with before, the tag flashes.

The device recognizes other SNIF Tag-wearing dogs using RFID.

The SNIF Tag package includes a base station, which you keep plugged into your PC at home. When the dog is near, it uploads the data, so you can see your dog's activity level even when you're away on business.

The problem with this concept is that "activity level" isn't a compelling enough application to get people to buy this thing. And with hardly anyone buying it, the social networking aspect of it is useless as well.

What SNIF Tag needs is GPS. If you could use SNIF Tag to monitor exactly where your pet went, then that could provide a compelling reason for people to buy one.

SNIF Labs says they don't use GPS because "GPS transceivers are bulky, expensive, and require lots of power." But this is baloney. Companies already build tiny GPS transceivers into cell phones and wristwatches. It can be done. Besides, you don't need to build everything into one boxy unit. You could actually spread it out into multiple, thin, lightweight units.

Regarding the use of power, SNIF Labs need only innovate this problem away. For example, the collar should switch the GPS unit on when it's out of range of the base station, and off when the dog is back home.

And expensive? This thing is already expensive without delivering compelling value. SNIF Tag costs $299, with an introductory price of $199. Incredibly, SNIF Labs charges $10 per month for the service (after the first year, which is free), which includes neither GPS nor mobile broadband data. You're simply paying for the use of a web site.

That business model will fail. Sorry, SNIF Labs. Nobody's going to pay either $200 or $300, plus $10 per month to find out how far their dog walked -- or for social networking with nobody.