a startup called SNIF Labs is gearing up to beta test a technology designed to help dogs--and their owners--become better acquainted.

SNIF Labs--the company's name is short for Social Networking in Fur--is developing what its website calls "a custom radio communications protocol" that allows special tags dogs wear on their collars to swap dog and owner information with other SNIF-tag users. When two dogs wearing tags come within range of each other, the tags start to swap dog and even owner information.

Once owners are back home and using the company's social-networking service, they can trade information about their dogs and themselves online.

The SNIF Tag was invented by SNIF Labs, a Boston-based company conceived of by a group of MIT Media Laboratory graduate students. Among the founding members of the company are engineers, designers, and, of course, dog lovers brought together by the dream of a real-time device interfacing with online social networking.

Their Eureka moment came at a dog park. Taking note that dog walking, especially in urban areas, provided a safe, friendly platform that invited social interaction, the team set to work developing a technology to enhance the experience.

The result is the SNIF Tag. As their prototypes developed and grew more advanced, it became clear there was an opportunity to do more than just connect friends with the device. Adding recently-invented motion sensing circuitry and developing proprietary analysis software, the team created a powerful tool that could at once monitor the activities of a pet and provide a social connection among people. While the product has changed and grown over its years of development, its origins as an ingenious idea at MIT are its foundation.