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The big challenge for developers and marketers utilizing Facebook and other similar platforms is turning an idea into an application that transcends the digital world into the physical one. This hurdle leaves us with apps ranging from the intricate and refined, to the down right goofy or even scary. Last week a startup called Illme was presented at Slush Conference in Helsinki Finland, signaling peeraps a new trend for Facebook and other social enterprises. If simplicity atop a massive demographic mean anything, Illme’s “digital cure” for the common cold is pure genius.

Of the seven early startups presenting at Slush, Matt Marshall of VentureBeat named Illme the best company presenting. A glowing assertion given the competition there and Matt’s reputation for picking winners. Illme is drop dead simple and potentially viral as and idea, but how can such a simple idea impose itself atop Earth moving technology and innovation? By touching the pulse of the people - core ideas and issues engaging a massive demographic - just like Facebook. In the case of Illme, the core idea, sniffing out and helping snuff out the common cold.

Who Has The Sneezies?

So, how does it work (or will it even work)? According to Marshall, who covered Slush, Illme essentially tracks and records people on Twitter, Facebook and other platforms who complain of symptoms for the common cold - “What are you doing right now?” - Aaaaachooo! Yep, tracking down colds and their locations to create a matrix where the virtual cold “weather vane” can help people avoid high risk cold areas. Well, at least this is my perception of how the UI will work. The startup has not launched, but I can already see a Google like map with runny nose areas colored with alerts from yellow to red.

By tracking Facebook user input/update data like complaints of runny noses, coughs and other cold symptoms, in conjunction with variables like location and other commonalities, Illme can warn people of cold risk. I know, this seems on the fringes of the surreal, but in reality the human landscape can to a degree be mapped/studied this way. Facebook and a few other social platforms are so widespread and inundated with so much information, ideas like Illme almost seem a foregone conclusion if you think about it. In retrospect, one wonders why more statistical and analytical type engagement has not already been done for the common good if not for monetary gain.

$40 Billion - Nothing To Sneeze At

The big picture for Facebook users and business in general becomes clearer given medicine interacting with vast social networking platforms. Illme is perhaps the first true example of how Facebook and others can actually put digital information into a form imminently usable in the physical. According to the co-founder of Illme, Dr. Markus Bergman, the U.S health care system alone spends upward of $40 billion to combat the common cold yearly. In answer to detractors (and according to Marshall there were plenty at the conference), Illme suggested that warning enough people to prevent 10 percent of colds could save up to $4 billion.

There it is in a nutshell, real dollars, real people and a real problem addressed by a simple idea. Stay tuned as next we could see male pattern baldness traced to a Twitter account in Bangor, Maine. Seriously, I have to agree with Matt, that Illme while novel in its simplicity and uniqueness, exemplifies the “sticky” idea. Engaging millions with even a partial solution to an age old malady sets a standard even if Illme never flies. I remember hearing as a kid,; “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” I think we are seeing just the tip of the iceberg as far as ultra useful, real world applications for Facebook, and even in this day $4 billion in savings is nothing to sneeze at.