Who’s Near Me Wins 2nd Place in Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7 App Challenge at WPC 11

A few days ago, nine finalists presented their Windows Phone 7 applications at Microsoft’s 2011 Worldwide Partner Conference in Los Angeles, CA in hopes of being recognized as the Best Windows Phone 7 application as part of Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7 App Challenge contest.  The nine finalists were selected by Microsoft’s judges from a pool of over 500 submitted applications based on factors such as feature-set, Metro design, uniqueness, and wow-factor.  The event was hosted by Laura Foy, the host of Channel9’s Hot Apps show.  The event was recorded and you will be able to watch it on-demand from Microsoft’s Channel9 website sometime in the very near future.

Although all nine finalist applications’ presentations were met with overwhelmingly enthusiastic audience approval, two applications emerged as the clear leaders:  Executive Caddie and Who’s Near Me.  Executive Caddie is a GPS range-finder and score-keeping application for Golf enthusiasts.  The application contains thousands of golf courses nation-wide and puts the most complete collection of course data literally at your fingertips.

You might remember the other application, Who’s Near Me, from one of the articles that we have posted about it over the past year.  Who’s Near Me is a proximity-based (location) social network that allows you to anonymously connect with strangers near you in real-time with free text and picture messaging, group chat, and more.  This website has been following the Who’s Near Me social network since it was first released for the Windows Mobile platform over a year ago.  The network is now also accessible on Windows Phone 7, as well as any mobile or desktop web browser at whosnearme.net.  With now over 320,000 users, the network has grown significantly in the past year since we first reported about it.

The final results of the contest were Executive Caddie in 1st place, with Who’s Near Me behind it at 2nd place.  3rd place was awarded to the “Push To Start” application.