Google Latitude Map Tool Launches
By on
February 5th, 2009
Google yesterday launched a new service called Latitude that allows participants to keep track of their family and friends on an online map from certain smartphones or a computer.
With the feature, a user can “see if your spouse is stuck in traffic on the way home from work, notice that a buddy is in town for the weekend, or take comfort in knowing that a loved one’s flight landed safely,” Google said.
Latitude, a feature for the latest version of Google Maps, is available on BlackBerry, Symbian S60 and Windows Mobile smartphones. It is to be on Google’s Android phone “in the next few days,” and on Apple’s iPhone “very soon,” Google said.
In the United States, it can also be accessed on the iGoogle site on a computer.
John Tierney, 44, of Huntington, executive vice president of an information security firm, tested the service by sharing his location with his wife. “I thought it might be cool to set up so my family can check when I’m heading out of the office and where I am on my daily travels,” he said. His Treo phone was “fairly accurate in displaying my actual location.”
As far as privacy concerns, he said that because both parties have to choose to participate, “I think they are on the right path.”
But critics wonder how useful the service would be and decried the loss of privacy and information overload. And David Sessions, editor of Patrol, a New York City Web magazine, captured the various reactions in a blog posting: “Stalk me!” he wrote. “Thanks to the sweet/creepy new Google Latitude, it’s easier than ever.”
Jordan Michnoff, 16, of Setauket, said he had reservations about privacy when he downloaded it onto his BlackBerry Curve, but found “it’s really not a problem.” He said a group of his friends “drove to points about five miles from each other just to test it out. It worked perfectly and my guess is that it would work perfectly from opposite sides of the Earth.”
Cold Spring Harbor librarian Lauren Gilbert, 41, who was interested in trying it, said she wasn’t concerned about being watched by Big Brother because users choose to be located and can set the level of detail to be shared. She asked, “Aren’t we already telling our friends where we are and what we’re doing all day long” on social networking sites?
Other companies have offered similar location-based services that seek to intertwine social networking and mapping, such as Loopt, Brightkite and Whrrl.
HOW IT WORKS
AGREE TO OPT IN. When a friend sends you a sharing request, you can accept and share back; accept but hide your location from that user; or not accept.
LOCATE FRIENDS. View participating friends on a map or in a list.
IN CHAT. If you chat with a friend on Google’s instant message program, Google Talk, you can call, e-mail or send a text message to that person while using Latitude.
LIMIT THE INFO. You can choose whether to share the “best available” location, only the city level location or to hide from a friend. You can manually set your location or disable Latitude at any time.
WHAT’S SAVED. Only the last location is stored.
SUPPORTED HARDWARE
Certain mobile smartphones (BlackBerry, Symbian S60, Windows Mobile) through Google Maps for mobile version 3.0
Desktops and laptops (in the U.S.) as iGoogle gadget
Download at http://google.com/latitude
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