Brightkite is a new notification service for the purpose of providing options to users as to what kind of notifications they'd like to receive. The service is currently under pretty tight wraps, and the public beta is set to launch soon.
With the options of receiving updates via email, instant messenger or SMS text messages, Brightkite will give website publishers the ability to extend these options to the end user. Instead of having to constantly check our email inbox, people will be able to choose which type of notification they'd like. This could be for signing up for the alert to check out the public beta (as brightkite has done) or finding out when your friends have uploaded new images to their blog.
Brightkite's future plan is to enable users to send notifications to their community from a mobile device, sort of a reverse option for its initial service offering. This future plan is probably a more important development for the company, as it empowers the end user directly, instead of as a result of another client utilizing Brightkite's service. That way, users choose where the messages are sent, and who sees these notifications, building on Brightkite's own platform and creating smaller communities in the process. Otherwise, much of what Brightkite offers is already built in to many of the applications we already use: access to email and instant messengers on your cell phone, SMS notifications for your Facebook newsfeeds, and so on.