If you look at my Facebook page you might think that I’m still in Miami, although I returned from that trip two weeks ago. I simply forgot to change my location status back to New York City. The problem with most location updates on Facebook or elsewhere is that they require you to manually change your status every time you get on a plane. Finally, though, there is an easier way to broadcast your location automatically. It is called MyLoki.
MyLoki is a service offered by Boston-based SkyHook Wireless, the same company behind the GPS-like, WiFi-locating technology in the iPhone. Skyhook can determine your location based on the nearest WiFi routers that it picks up through your laptop or other computing device.
After first downloading the Loki toolbar for your browser, whenever you are in the vicinity of a WiFi hotspot it should be able to triangulate your location. You can then broadcast this information in a number of ways. You get your own MyLoki page that shows people your exact location, or you can embed a constantly updated map with your position on your blog:
You can add the map as a Facebook app:
You also can create an embeddable badge and append it to your e-mail signature.
Or you can even create a location feed that anyone obsessed with your whereabouts can subscribe to. This feed integrates with any GeoRSS service, such as Google MyMaps. MyLoki also works with Jaiku and Yahoo’s Fire Eagle. No Twitter integration yet, but that is in the works.
MyLoki lets you enable or disable each broadcast option. For privacy, most only show what city you are in. The embeddable map lets you choose between country, state, city, zipcode or exact location in revealing where you are. If the application becomes popular, Skyhook CEO Ted Morgan thinks that Websites will want to localize their content (and ads) to Web surfers with Loki-enabled browsers. Good thing those privacy settings can be turned on and off.
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wow, nice google map by google. we can search for all places to the entire world.
Great idea… wish I thought of it a few years ago
Jon
http://woodmarvels.com - Create Unique Memories
Some may find it useful …
But most dont like their location to be public …
Any ways nice idea …
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Intersting idea,
It would be great if integrate with Facebook/orkut and Only my frnd can see where i am ?
Cheers,
Raxit
http://www.MyKavita.com
A german company by the name of Plazes is actually doing this for some years now! http://plazes.com/
Plazes looks three generations of development better and more useful than myloki.
Comments on here are turning to utter spam. People are just saying crap to get their link near the top of the comments. So annoying
Dear Internet Stalkers, I’M HERE!
its crap if it doesn’t work on the iphone. seriously.
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Wow, privacy just isn’t what it used to be these days but it’s still a good idea if used for the right reasons.
“iTunes, eat your heart out”
http://myspace.com/soundbeastdigital
The perfect tool for Burglars! When they know you’re away from home, they go to work! Some ‘innovations’ are a step in the wrong direction, imo.
Where can I find the Jaiku support as the post tells us?
Do you really want your spouses divorce atty to know where you are?
David
How about we all get a human chip implement and use GPS to track our every move.
It’s a little worrying as it makes me feel a bit like…..BIG BROTHER…..is watching - a great tool to use but I’m not sure it’s for me……nice blog!
Julie
Mio Destino
Look, the technology for big brother to track you is already there, this is allowing YOU to track YOU or your FRIENDS to track you. If “Big Brother” wants to track you they already can using this and other technologies without this website. This is a silly website…
Yep. Big Brother is alive and well and getting stronger by the minute. The Thought Police is coming for you!
@David (#7), True, but if you comment without a URL, you are trolling. Kind of a double-edge sword.
As for myloki (or plazes for that matter), I guess I just dont get the idea of telling people where I am. While I know many-a-marketer that would love to get this info, I would rather someone call me if they want to know where I am or what I am doing.
Call me paranoid, but it will only take a few well-publicized incidents to sway public opinion.
if this worked with Dopplr or other travel blogs that would be awesome, it would be even cooler if they could create a way to use this without actually installing the tool bar and just visiting the site, because then when you are traveling and might be in an internet cafe writing a blog post, you could broadcast your location and link it to the post without an installation. I used Loki when I needed to locate myself for playareacode’s “Plunder”, pretty cool service. I am excited about the new feature and would hope something like my suggestion is acted upon
No real opinion on the service, but it seems to me this is the worst domain name ever. Looks exactly like a godaddy “Sorry your chosen domain name isn’t available, here’s your suggested alternatives.” That is, unless the Norse god of mischief happens to work for them, in which case I take it back.
@ Frank Church: ok, I comment without a link. I post 0-4 comments a day, with several days without any comments. Does it make me a troll?
And yes, too much spam these days. I liked the Hacker News terms of use, one of which says: “Please don’t sign comments, especially with your url. They’re already signed with your username. If other users want to learn more about you, they can click on it to see your profile.”
Maybe TC should have this rule too…
Why do i need a link? I just want to comment sometimes. Not everyone has a crappy blog trying to make money off adsense.
People work or go to school during the week, therefore, their locations don’t vary that much. Might not be as interesting as you think…
hey everyone, I’m in a pay toilet on Bond Street In London………video at 11
Seriously, is this not the ultimate attention whore-ware out there? It’s novel but would you want your employer, competitors, enemies know where you are?
Now all I need is a stalker so that this can be useful.
I wonder when people are gonna wake up and realize this social movement on knowing all there is to know, when, and where; is a window for losing what is dear, and that is the right to privacy. When people give up that right for self promotion, profit, and instant gratification, the privacy rights they’re granted become worthless. Once you give it up, you can never get it back.Things are moving too fast and too far. The big social push could push us to becoming what the goverment wants us to be…..SOCIALIST. What a pity.. This country is going to hell in a hand basket and what Daddy bush called, ” The New World Order”
George Orwell was right!
Big Brother is watching us.
Might be useful for travel sights.
I think a more usefule tool is the one in iTrip that let’s friends know when you are in town.
scary
fail
WTF, Why its scary or invasion of privacy . any such service is Opt in and you can turn it off at your will . there are always some down side of any technology
you can get killed in a car accident so we should close every fucking car factory in Detroit ?
think of Child Tracking by parents , chances to meet your Buddy in next block when you are just killing time in Starbuck , fleet tracking , location attached promotion , Carpool and not to forget Dating also .
if you think all this is BAD why the hell you are reading Techcrunch and why you use Email ..i can tell your location with reasonable accuracy from the message header. Go Ahead start using birds .
Man, I just don’t like the idea of people knowing my exact location. Am I the only one with a very crazy ex-girlfriend??? Yeah, I really want her knowing I’m eating at Houstons on Park Ave, on Friday night, with another chick. Where can I sign up?
bigbrother doesnt need this site to track you, your cell phone, land line, internet connection, your bible and toaster is more than enough.
@ people complaining about links, chill out, just dont click on the link, whats the big deal?
@Prashant , bigbrother can trace birds and smoke.
@PRASHANT
@PRASHANT
Fleet tracking is already available. The rest of your argument is BS. As for being here on TC, there are other technologies they cover which is NOT around social networking. Not a lot, but some. Get a clue will ya
This looks cool and even looks pretty good but the UI is horrendous. After i signed up and installed the toolbar I couldn’t figure out what I was supposed to do next. Don’t make me think people, come on!
It’s opt-in people! do you not know that the cell companies track you regardless? Id rather have a useful service that I can opt-in and out of. They even have a button to disable sharing if you want.
With as much travel as I do I like the idea of letting my friends know what city I am in. Its very much like Dopplr which I love too
lol, their slogan is priceless, I am not sure they know that it sounds really bad
“Consider “Where are you?” a thing of the past.”
kiss your private life good bye,lol.
Too much info.
They should change the name of the company to My Stalker.
Why would I want anyone knowing where specifically I am in the city?
Bad idea - no potential revenue. Give me the 15 million to throw a party!
Yay, my stalkers will be sooo pleased
can i leave my setting to always “on the crapper” ?
What is this going to do to Loopt? This is free. Loopt charges $2.99 per month. Anyone care to share their thougths?
Do you try Ipoki.com?
You can share you location in realtime using a GPS.
PlaceEngine (Tokyo based) uses a very similar technology (or at least the idea behind it) and provides similar services. It is however more focused on the developer community, and does not offer social-oriented services.
Another difference is that the client to download is not a browser extension but a regular application you download and install (and as such, you can interact with it from outside of the browser as well).
In Japan there are already a number of third parties using this technology to provide location-aware services.
http://www.placeengine.com/en
“..Why everybody is developing their Location Aware Applications? If I have to install 10 softwares on my mobile, I am sure all of them will be reading my GPS info constantly from mobile and sending to their respective servers. First of all, it is sheer wastage of processing power of my tiny mobile and also the bandwidth (because applications may use their own protocol to transmit Location Coordinate) . It can be easily done if HTTP request has this parameter for Location Coordinate…”