Comments on: Google Latitude arrives to rip the arse out of mobile location services

By: BA

BA — Sun, 22 Feb 2009 07:44:53 +0000

Why on earth it is so ineficient. Not only the latitude thing is buggy slow and has several issues , it is also messing with existing google maps functinoality. To see my list of recomendation and review, please see my blog at http://www.basitali.com

By: meeting rooms

meeting rooms — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 17:07:00 +0000

Let’s see it this way. It would be kind of cool for figuring out where your friends are at. How cool would it be to be taking a taxi in NYC, check your phone and see your friends are in a bar just up the street, stop in and join them! Sweet

I think you can cloak your location if you do not want others to see your location, i.e.. if you are studying for an exam or on a date with someone else! Bad!

By: meeting rooms

meeting rooms — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 17:07:00 +0000

I think you can cloak your location if you do not want others to see your location, i.e.. if you are studying for an exam or on a date with someone else! Bad!

By: nokiahotspot

nokiahotspot — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 06:00:20 +0000

Hi nice post If you don't mind I will translate it to Hebrew
on my blog at nokiahotspot.wordpress.com in 1-2 days

By: Mark

Mark — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 12:35:00 +0000

Ehh, I am missing something…!

You can sign in and sign out of latitude but I didn’t see that initially. I would have thought quitting the app and not selecting to continue to update my location would have signed me out automatically…

That may catch a few people out !

By: Mac Morrison

Mac Morrison — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 11:58:49 +0000

It's all a bit cludgy and useless at the moment.
There's no clear purpose or ability to use it for anything.
But i suspect it will start adding features.
nothing we haven't seen before, but its google so it's got reach.

People are tetchy about location services - from the daily mail fear style comments abound

By: Mac Morrison

Mac Morrison — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 11:54:46 +0000

no its not because you dont share your position with everyone. only people you choose to. and even then you can not share – or manually put yourself in the south pole.

By: Mike42

Mike42 — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 11:46:16 +0000

If you change your Google password the Latitude function logs out.

By: Ewan @ MIR

Ewan @ MIR — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 11:34:26 +0000

Very interesting thought, Mark…

By: Mark

Mark — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 11:32:28 +0000

This is a fantastic implementation of google maps and LBS but I'm a bit shocked that I can go back in to the app and not need a password to see the locations of my friends…

What happens if I lose my phone…? I wouldn't like someone to know where my girlfriend is or that my niece is at school etc

Why didn't they make the latitatue menu option password controlled, or am I missing something?

By: Ewan @ MIR

Ewan @ MIR — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 10:53:15 +0000

That's going to be a serious issue

By: jonmulholland

jonmulholland — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 05:49:54 +0000

I agree with Josh - Latitude has Jaiku all over it (http://bit.ly/3B7xVm). One point I would add though is that Google is actually quite well developed with it's 'friend strategy', it just hasn't been applied to mobile... yet. Google Friend Connect and the Google Social Graph API provide a very though way of linking online social relationships to Google Accounts - relationships from Twitter, Blogs, Flickr and any other web site using a simple line of XFN are easily identified.

I always thought the 'Google announces plan to destroy all information it can't index story on the Onion was satire, not so sure now - http://www.theonion.com/content/node/40076

By: steveprocter

steveprocter — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 05:17:52 +0000

as an aside, I heard that Google are about to launch Google Brother 1.0, a new suite of applications for your mobile phone. Apparently the first application is called Thinkpol and it permanently open up the mobile's microphone to be in stealth listening mode. It can then for example send an sms to the authorities if it picks up any Carol Thatcher style mutterings about anything it deems to be potitically incorrect. My sources tell me that the BBC are being considered for running the new Thinkpol department.

They will then be combining Google Brother applications to get real added value. So Thinkpol and Latitude will allow you to say “ooh you are sexy” when you are found to be in the general vicinity of your home and your wife's googlebrother phone is within 20 yards of yours. But if you are in the Soho area of London it will again send a warning sms to Thinkpol.

All clever stuff hey

By: steveprocter

steveprocter — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 05:00:38 +0000

So will this allow employers to discover that all their employees aren't actual at home due to difficulty getting in to work because of snow; but are actually moving at speed down the side of the snow covered hill 2 miles from their home

By: james (mjelly)

james (mjelly) — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 00:07:43 +0000

Google doesn't necessarily dominate everything in mobile – admob has fended them off very nicely … Loopt made a big mistake trying to do everything through the operators – carriage deal by carriage deal – you still can't download it outside of the US …

By: SimonFord

SimonFord — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 21:59:31 +0000

Google Latitude arrives to rip the arse out of mobile location ...: 4) Potential for Buzzd to integrate with Goo.. http://tinyurl.com/bt2obn

[Original tweet, Topsy page]

By: SimonFord

SimonFord — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 16:59:31 +0000

Google Latitude arrives to rip the arse out of mobile location …: 4) Potential for Buzzd to integrate with Goo.. http://tinyurl.com/bt2obn