turtles like technology

Google Latitude: Seeing Where Your Friends are in Real Time

Social Networking meets Location Based Service : Latitude.

Latitude, built on the Google Maps API, allows you to share your location with friends while also seeing their location — all in real time, without a manual update.

google_latitude

The mobile application is currently not available on the iPhone and is only supported by Google’s Android as well as Blackberry, Symbian S60 and Windows Mobile.

Will this product take hold? Well, privacy is essentially becoming ephemeral. Between Latitude and Facebook, your “friends” will know a bit too much about you (every minute of the day) — but that is not the underlying concern as they are your “friends.”

But, this information in the wrong hands is a stalkers dream come true. We need to be weary of these services. I completely support their release into the market, however, this (along with numerous other social networking services) is not something that can be passively installed. One needs to be conscious of what information they are sharing with not only their friends, but the world. I foresee a bit of resistance with the adoption of Google’s new service.

Would you use it?

[Via PSFK]

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4 Comments

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I don’t think I would (even if I had a phone to support it), though I’ve just been steadily growing more and more wearry of the amount of information I give google about myself. Its never smart to put all your eggs in one basket.

Do you use it?

Comment by Zach Dwiel on February 4, 2009 4:38 pm


I agree with you, but don’t you think what you are saying can be applied to the release of almost any product to a certain extent at least? I mean with every new development in regards to technology the “we need to be weary” sentence seems to come up. To be honest I expected Turtlethink to consider a “new” reactionary response to the release of yet another social connectivity tool to hit the market, but I guess tradition isn’t so far behind us after all.
“Telephone, n. An invention of the devil which abrogates some of the advantages of making a disagreeable person keep his distance.” ~Ambrose Bierce

Comment by Someone on February 4, 2009 11:20 pm


I’ve been using it with two of my friends and I would say it is not creepy. To be honest, I knew where they were pretty much all the time anyways, because they are avid twitterers anyways. So really, what with facebook, twitter, etc, it is really not that much of a change. You can turn it off any time and it just says “unknown location.” Mostly it shows me sitting at home :( I have yet to see whether I find it interesting or useful to know where my buddies are. We shall see in a few weeks.

Comment by Michael Sandler on February 5, 2009 4:46 pm


Ach! It screwed up my emoticon. The frown was supposed to be in response to me sitting at home all the time.

Comment by Michael Sandler on February 5, 2009 4:47 pm

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