NEW YORK and HAIFA, Israel -- Imagine you're stuck in an airport during a delay, and (gasp!) you don't have an Internet connection. Thanks to a new Facebook application, you'd still be able to use your laptop computer - sans Internet - to detect Facebook friends (and friends of those friends) who have also installed the application, making it possible to network, chat, share files and directories, play collaborative games, or actually meet face-to-face.

According to scientists at the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, there are two components to the application, dubbed "Peersonalizer": a Facebook application and a module inside the free, downloadable WiPeer software developed by lead researcher Professor Roy Friedman's team last year.

WiPeer makes direct wireless (WiFi) communication between computers possible - without intermediary devices (such as Internet routers) - at distances of up to 900 ft.

Peersonalizer - for which the Technion has already applied for a patent - uses technology that can also be applied to other social networking sites such as MySpace, Friendster and LinkedIn. Friedman also says the technology could eventually be used with WiFi-enabled mobile phones, such as the iPhone.

"This application takes social networking to another level," says Friedman. "Peersonalizer demonstrates that Internet based social networks can serve as complementary mechanisms - rather than replacements - to social and business life."