"How often have you been in a room with someone and you know you've met them but you can't remember their name? Everyone has that problem right?" Highlight CEO Paul Davison explains in his company's sales pitch video.

Well there's an app to help you out with that. The latest GPS-operated apps, Highlight and Glancee are one-upping Foursquare and Gowalla because those platforms are so 2011.

Highlight and Glancee are using South By Southwest (SXSW) as their big break.

Could Foursquare the mobile app that introduced us to 'check-ins', promotional deals and friend activity soon be left in the dust to die with Gowalla by the game-changing features of Highlight and Glancee? What's so different?

The fact that you can now conveniently stalk mutual friends . . . I mean network. No, seriously, it's more than that.

Highlight and Glancee take the idea of social networking to another level. "People discovering services" is the term coined for these type of apps that instantly connect you with similar individuals who are currently in your area, wherever you may be. The combination of networking and geo-location lets you know when a friend is nearby — or a co-worker, or someone who went to college with your sister.

It shows their current location in relation to your current location.

What you do with that information is up to you.

The Choices

Now for some comparisons for you app fiends:

Glancee is available on iPhone and Android, there are no maps (so more privacy) and better battery life, it displays your contact information and notifies you with the most compatible matches in your area. Highlight is only available on the iPhone, it's faster, has maps, has a simpler and cleaner layout, and displays very little personal information.

They both operate through Facebook, so an account is required, which is how mutual friends and interests are tracked. The reason why these apps are creating hype is because they don't automatically spam your personal Facebook timeline and Twitter feed and can easily be used as a useful do-it-yourself marketing tool.

This ties into the music portion and panels being discussed at SXSW this year. Recent all-around topics include music discovery, music data, music and social networking and it being the business model for the future. 'Word-of-mouth' will be elevated and taken even more seriously.

These apps are literal conversation starters. Are they too intimate for your tastes? Do you really want to know when an old high school classmate is in the same Starbucks?