Google Latitude: Would you actually use it?
Apr 28, 2009 Tech Buzz
Google Latitude is a location tracking tool which is available as part of Google Maps and its free too. All you need is a mobile phone with Google Latitude installed, no GPS is required. Those who are in your latitude network (mostly close friends and family members) can track your location using any Internet connected PC. Google Latitude can be installed from mobile phone browser, http://google.com/latitude. I installed the Latitude in my Blackberry Bold and added my Wife to my network, and am tracked now. Latitude works on Blackberries, NokiS60s and Windows Mobile for now, and iPhone version is coming soon.
But, how many of us willing to share our Geo-location to public? Adoption will be slower unless other compelling features are available, for example incorporating this with Google Friend Connect.
I still like Latitude for few reasons. Because the privacy settings in Latitude is useful as you can manually set your false location or hide from friends instead of detecting your location automatic.
Couple of things I did not like about Latitude.
My Blackberry Bold is already have an issue of draining battery, now with Latitude this gets even worse as this application continuously update my whereabouts and $ drain as it consumes data plans in my phone. But you do not need a mobile phone to update your location via Latitude; I found a great post from Digital Inspiration about do’s and don’ts with Latitude.
Summary
Since Google Latitude is in the infancy stage, many of us will not dare to use it. Hope the adoption level will be more in future with great UI which will have additional features to take control of your privacy settings . For example, I must be able to create group, and each group should have my customized view of my locations.
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