Google Latitude
February 5th, 2009, 12:35pm by KelvinOK, let’s start a conversation about Google Latitude, a new service that let’s you track your friends’ whereabouts.
Basically, you create a friends list, and you can see where your friends are on a map if they choose to share their position.
On Windows Mobile phones, it comes with the new version of Google Maps Mobile. From there, you can update your position using either Google’s My Location tower triagulation method or the onboard GPS. You can also use GMM to access your friends list. You can even get directions to your friends.
From your PC, you add a plug-in into iGoogle where you have access your friend map. Also, if you have Google Gears installed, you can update your position using your laptop’s wifi signal to pinpoint your location.
Technically, it seems like an interesting technology. It doesn’t seem to update positions in real-time, which could be kinda annoying. There are a lot of privacy implications, but of course, the fact that it’s all opt-in is the saving grace, for now.
February 5th, 2009 at 2:07 pm
So if it’s installed, does it automatically update location at specified intervals, or do you have to launch the application and tell it to update? I mean, it seems fun, but I’m not sure if I like the idea of anyone being able to track where– besides the phone company of course!
Annoying thing was I followed your link in the Centro, and I was told nothing about Latitude other than to download the new Maps to use it. But the GMM for PalmOS doesn’t seem to have that feature. And there was no detail about the program on the info page you get to from the Centro. This is meta, but it was a really crappy roll-out. Poorly explained and with a fair bit of misinformation. Is there a FAQ somewhere?
February 5th, 2009 at 2:58 pm
From within GMM, you can choose to enable Latitude to update or not, although there’s no way to specify an interval. In fact, you can set on a friend-by-friend basis how precise a location you provide.
Sucks that your Centro got a generic page… worked from your Mac, right?
February 5th, 2009 at 3:54 pm
Yeah, on the Mac I was able to hit a few buttons and the tracker to iGoogle. The situation where this would be nice would be at fairs or Disneyland or something, where you could easily locate someone in a small area. Of course, it’s good to know when you leave work, too. I’ll be able to schedule my phone calls more effectively.
February 5th, 2009 at 7:44 pm
It’s pretty useless overall. More like a proof-of-concept. Helio and others have had friend finding services like this for a while. Mostly newsworthy because it’s Google, and it integrates with a service I already use all the time (GMM).
February 5th, 2009 at 7:46 pm
Of course, the “Spider Tracer” aspect of it is probably worth trying out at some point…
February 5th, 2009 at 8:25 pm
(It was after writing this a couple hours ago that I found pyslent was down due to a router problem…)
I’ve read a bit about this over the past couple of days. As of yesterday (from the official Google Blog):
No mention of when it’ll be on PalmOS or webOS, but Ars Technica gives Palm some credit for having included these sorts of features on the Pre.
Without live updating, it seems kinda dumb to me (keeping in mind that the iPhone couldn’t do live updating anyway, since things don’t run in the background — yet). If I have to take out my phone, launch an app, then hit a button to tell people where I am, I may as well Twitter, or call, for that matter.
And it doesn’t sound like the location is that precise anyway. If it could identify, “Mike’s at Starbucks,” that would be cool, but if it said, “Mike is somewhere in this 0.1 mile radius in Manhattan,” that’s kinda worthless. The WSJ article was interesting to read — but is this how location-based services are supposed to work (my emphasis, below):
As an interesting sidenote, it looks like Mac OS 10.6 will be location aware, with a new CoreLocation framework.
February 6th, 2009 at 12:18 pm
Well of course, the accuracy depends on how the location is detected. When using my phone’s GPS, it’s probably accurate within 30 feet– it sometimes places me on my lawn, but usually, I can see which room I’m in :). In theory, the cool thing is the integration with Google Maps and all it’s services. For instance, Latitude can tell me where you are, and I could launch satellite view or street view to see that you were, in fact, at a Starbucks.
Jake says that the location is supposed to update more frequently if you are moving. When I drove home yesterday, it seemed to be about 2 minutes behind. On the other hand, it didn’t update for a few hours straight when I was at home. On Windows Mobile, there’s supposed to be an option to keep my location updating even after I quit GMM, but it doesn’t seem to work. I’m ok with the idea that I have to be running GMM for it to work– that way, I won’t forget that it’s on :).
December 15th, 2009 at 7:53 pm
Looks like Latitude should be running on the Pre soon enough, per Precentral. Maybe part of the C.E.S presser.