Ever wished you knew whether your brother was in town for the weekend, or worried about a friend stuck in traffic?
Wonder no longer. On February 4, 2009, Google released a new form of social networking called "Google Latitude." Using GPS technology to track a person's location, Latitude makes it possible to know where your friends and colleagues are and to make the same information available to them.
What is Google Latitude?
Google Latitude is a brand new form of social networking.
Latitude uses GPS technology to pinpoint your location (or at least, the location of your mobile phone) and share it on Google Maps with friends you have allowed to receive information about your whereabouts.
This kind of technology isn't new – other services including Whrll, Loopt, and Helio (1) have provided GPS mobile phone pinpointing. But none of these services had the accessibility that Google has in terms of carriers and phones.
What's more, Google Latitude also makes it possible to post a brief status message ("out walking the dog"), keep in touch with SMS, Google Talk, or Gmail, or to upload photos from a suitably equipped phone.
Do You Need Special Technology to Subscribe to Google Latitude?
Google Latitude does require specific mobiles, but it won't for long.
As of its release at the beginning of February, 2009, Google Latitude is available in 27 countries to anyone using a Smartphone, Blackberry, S60, or Windows Mobile.
Android users will be able to get Google Latitude "in the next few days" (2) and soon the same will be possible for iPhone users (and, doubtless, more to come), while anyone lacking the right mobile technology can participate using their laptop.
Is Privacy a Thing of the Past?
Google seems to have addressed the obvious privacy and security concerns despite the fact that, as Chris Dannen puts it, "Latitude keeps track of your friends like so many tagged woodland creatures." (1)
Google Latitude is opt-in only, and every friend on the system must be approved before they can see your location. Settings allow the user to adjust whether each friend can view your specific location or only a generalized city location.
It is also possible turn off or "hide" the phone's location at any time (from all friends, or only certain people), and the Google Latitude system does not record any history – it only displays current location (or none, if location is turned off), so Latitude cannot be used to track past movement or predict future location trends.
Google Latitude is a quantum leap forward in social networking technology, and it will be interesting to see how this affects online networking as it becomes available across different mobile technologies.
Sources
(1) Dannen, Chris, "Google Latitude Makes History," FastCompany.com, Thursday February 5, 2009.
(2) Google, "See where your friends are with Google Latitude," The Official Google Blog, February 4, 2009.
