AwareSpot is a free service that allows you to send and receive relevant location based SMS text message alerts to groups of people. You can either sign up for a public service for your own use or create a distribution list for familiy and friends to whom you can send custom alerts.

There are three types of distribution lists that you can create:

* Published: list can be joined by anyone, list name is published in the AwareSpot directory
* Non-published: list can be joined by anyone, list name is not published in the AwareSpot directory
* Private: invite-only, list can only be joined by users who the list owner specifically invites, list name is not published in the AwareSpot directory

After subscribing to a distribution list, members can specify their desired locations of interest on a map, and optionally the days and times that they want to receive alerts. Locations of interest can be areas around any city, routes along roads, etc. Users can subscribe to multiple areas and routes, all with different days and times of interest.

There are two types of alerts that are sent:

+ Regular alerts get sent out as text messages or e-mails. Once they are sent, they cannot be modified, deleted, or cancelled.

+ Sticky alerts can be sent initially as text messages, but the alert stays active in the system until the distribution list owner moves, edits, or deletes it. Also, sticky alerts can be downloaded as POIs onto navigation devices such as Garmin.

Click here to visit Awarespot for more details and to sign up for the service.