Hotlink - South Africa's first SMS business and telephone directory

The phone numbers can then be dialed directly from the reply SMS or saved in your phone for future use.

Hotlink was developed by BlackHatMedia (www.blackhatmedia.com), a local technology company that specialises in the development of interactive SMS applications. BlackHatMedia has registered a provisional patent in South Africa for hotklink SA Pat App 2003/4028.

Daniel Cimring, the CEO of BlackHatMedia, comments on where the idea for hotlink came from.

"The use of SMS as a communication tool has grown beyond anyone's expectations, both in South Africa and around the world. When we saw how difficult it was to simply find a business name or phone number and how most people were starting to use SMS for everyday communication we realized that there was a gap in the market for a simple to use SMS directory service. A lot of people are currently focused on the more sexy GSM technologies such as 2.5G, 3G, MMS, WAP, GPRS and USSD. Our view is that these technologies will take time to become widely used, and in the mean time SMS is something that works on all phones and that most people are already using. We decided to develop something that would help 14 million people in South Africa access information using their phone without having the latest handset or having to fiddle around with tricky settings. There are many more exciting hotlink features that will be announced soon so watch this space."

If you have ever used SMS to send messages to friends and family then you will find hotlink extremely easy to use. You simply write up a message with words describing the company, product or service you require and send it to one of the hotlink numbers. To find Boating International in Edenvale use "boating international in edenvale" or just "boat inter eden". To find a hotel in Sea Point use "hotels in sea point cape town" or just "hotel sea point". As you can see from these examples hotlink allows you to abbreviate words by simply typing the first few letters instead of the entire word.

The current numbers to use for hotlink are Vodacom 082 007 002 123, MTN 083 326 006 223 and Cell C 084HOTLINK or 084 468 5465. Save the correct number in your phone now and hotlink will always be just an SMS away. As soon as short code numbers become available in South Africa the number to use for hotlink will change. If you use hotlink now we will send you an SMS alert when this happens.

Hotlink is also available on the internet at www.hotlink.co.za. Here you can conduct the same searches online that can be done from your cell phone. And if you own a business then be sure to click on the add my business link where you can send us your details to make sure that your business is included in the hotlink directory. Listing is free for the next 3 months so try www.hotlink.co.za or SMS one of the numbers above to check that your business is listed.

BlackHatMedia would like to work together with other directory companies in order to ensure that hotlink has a large database of up to date information. BlackHatMedia and Eating Out (www.dining-out.co.za), a leading online restaurant directory, have recently agreed to work together so that Eating Out's directory is available via SMS and hotlink contains listings from South Africa's top restaurants.

If you would like to talk to us or find out more about hotlink or other products developed by BlackHatMedia please contact or visit www.hotlink.co.za and www.blackhatmedia.com.