Google pushed out a new product today called Google Latitude. It basically lets you find friends in geographical locations via Google Maps. This is pretty cool. Loopt has been doing this for a while, and so have others. I'm not really sure I see the value in this, other than its a great way to stalk your friends. If I really wanted to know where someone was, I would just ask them.
The interesting part is it wasn't released for the iPhone. It does work on the Android of course, Blackberry and Windows Mobile. But with GPS and mapping so tightly integrated into the iPhone, I'm really surprised this was left out of the initial release. I hardly ever used mapping on my Windows Mobile device.
Is Google targeting a service like BrightKite.com, where I can check in at a specific location, or upload photos and give it a geo tag? I can see better uses for this service than just seeing who around me. I would also like to be able to update my social network too, like FriendFeed or Twitter, with a link to my latest location.
I'm not sure if this was intentional or chance, but the map on the Latitude home page was in my general area. Weird, huh? Stalking at its best.
[image title="Google Latitude" size="full" id="1051" align="none" linkto="full" ]
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The interesting part is it wasn't released for the iPhone. It does work on the Android of course, Blackberry and Windows Mobile. But with GPS and mapping so tightly integrated into the iPhone, I'm really surprised this was left out of the initial release. I hardly ever used mapping on my Windows Mobile device.
Is Google targeting a service like BrightKite.com, where I can check in at a specific location, or upload photos and give it a geo tag? I can see better uses for this service than just seeing who around me. I would also like to be able to update my social network too, like FriendFeed or Twitter, with a link to my latest location.
I'm not sure if this was intentional or chance, but the map on the Latitude home page was in my general area. Weird, huh? Stalking at its best.
[image title="Google Latitude" size="full" id="1051" align="none" linkto="full" ]
