Google has released two nifty applications for Google Latitude, a feature launched through Google Mobile Maps that allows you to broadcast your location to select friends, family, and colleagues based on the coordinates of your cell phone (via GPS or otherwise). Google says that since Latitude’s launch, users expressed interest in sharing their location with people who are not their Latitude friends. The two apps rolled out today allow users to do this.
Google Talk location status automatically updates your Google Talk or Gmail chat status message with your Latitude location. The application will automatically update your status message to your current city as you move, and anyone who can chat with you will be able to see this location status. Your current city is shared with all of your Google Talk or Gmail Chat contacts even if you hide from certain “friends” in Google Latitude.
The Google Public Location Badge lets you publish your Latitude location on your blog or website via your mobile phone. You can choose to show just the city that you are in or you can have your device’s location detected automatically, using GPS, Wi-Fi, or cell tower ID, which provides a more specific location. Here’s an example of what a badge looks like embedded in a blog. For your privacy, you may choose to share your best available location or share only your city-level location.
Before these apps, there was no way to broadcast your location to the public at large via Latitude, only to your own Gmail contacts through the Latitude feature. Now you can publicize your location more broadly via Gmail Chat and your blog. Of course there are privacy concerns with publicly sharing your location at all times, but it is already happening and public geo-broadcasting will only become more popular over time. There are upsides to using location-based services to find friends or contacts-or even purse-snatchers- and other services have caught on to this rising trend, including Loopt, FourSquare, and Whrrl.
Interesting post
It is very much opt-in, and opt-in when you want. Knock knock fb.
“We noticed your city is changed from NY to Washington DC, do you want to publish it to all your friends?”
Now wait for the Facebook app…. it was always going to happen.
Can’t wait to see where this is heading
Interesting
Hopefully when iPhone 3.0 arrives we can have that on the Jesus phone
This feature will undoubtedly lead to multiple divorces… “I thought you were going to Laguna Beach, what the hell were you doing in San Bernadino? Isn’t that where your little tramp secretary lives…”
This man is brilliant… an obvious scholar and gentleman.
You are more interesting than the man in the dos equis commercial.
Google Latitude doesn’t work for me. My G1 isn’t able to update my location regularly without problems.
I already publish my location onto http://andy.tel/
Check out the My .tel app in the App Store.
Is Google competing with Facebook on stalker tool of the year?
I like how Google is approaching location services. They are going at it slowly but surely with incremental features.
Maybe there’s an API in the horizon.
I can’t wait to see what apps will be built with Latitude’s integration on the latest Firefox.
Why would I want this????? I don’t care where you are…
still waiting for latitude to come to the iphone…
Maybe they will have an app that lets you post your birth certificate and credit card numbers, too? And you blood type and genome and every other iota of personal information to your employers and health insurance companies.sweet. http://iamned.com/blog/ no recession for the Silicon Valley
For those who don’t use Google Latitude, you can still do that with Yahoo! Fire Eagle. That’s what we do on our blog… we display a little Google Maps of our current location, and we make a nice iPhone app to update your location on Fire Eagle!
Freaky. Me. Don’t. Want.
This stuff is cool. Is there any way to check others location without their permission. forget it just kidding!!!!
Nice Info;
Big Brother is watching us.
I have been waiting for this for ages!
But im wondering, does anyone know how the phone app sends your location to its server? I have GPS in my phone and I have been waiting to use this to show where my boat is in real time.
However we always have a GPS signal, we dont always have a phone signal, particularly if we are going really fast!
Just wondering how this might work. I guess you need a signal all the time!
Hope I can have this on the iphone..