Google Latitude – Mainstream Location-based Social Network is Here.
Today, Google is introducing Google Latitude to give you the ability to see where your friends and family are on your smartphone or PC. It super imposes the location of the person on top of Google maps, and shows provides users with the ability to control whether they would like others to see their locations. Latitude locates users using using a combination of GPS, WiFi and cell tower.
For now, supported devices include all Android devices, most BlackBerry devices, WinMo 5.0 and up devices, Symbian S60 devices, with iPhone/iPod Touch and Sony Ericsson devices support coming soon.
If you are starting to worry about being tacked by your friends and family, don’t worry. First, Latitude gives you the ability to control whether you want others to see your location. Second, location-based social network/tracking is not new. Companies like Loopt and Whrrl have been doing this for years, but Google’s entry will help this become mainstream. We told you this year would be huge for location-based services, and our prediction is becoming true.
Our next prediction is that Facebook and MySpace will enter this space too. Already, many Facebook and MySpace users are using their mobile app to access the social networks, so it makes a lot of sense for them to add location-awareness to them. That will of course make tracking your buddies even more common.
Hit the video below to see the official Google Latitude video to see how it works.
February 4th, 2009 at 9:40 am
Great – now I can run down my cellphone’s battery even faster than before!
February 5th, 2009 at 3:55 pm
Good for Google. I used to work for a vendor company selling LBS and presence platform to carriers. For years, carriers have tried to commercialize LBS to generate new revenue streams but have failed miserably with their close-mindedness and turtling. Now, it looks like Google is just going to eat their lunch, and dinner.
If they get desperate, the carriers can always traffic-filter in their EDGE/3G networks, dropping these location updates going to Google Latitude servers. The technology is there, and hey, if Comcast can do it to P2P traffic, they might just do it to protect their lunch (or “value-chain” as they like to put it). Who knows?
February 5th, 2009 at 5:42 pm
Great points. I think all the pieces are finally in place to brew the perfect storm for LBS this year and for the next several years. I think mobile operators really need to open up and rethink their business model to embrace the world of convergence. As another example, their business model today blocks many consumer electronics from getting connected online. There is no barrier today for hardware, device, random toaster makers to include the hardware necessary to connect everything up to the Internet. The only major barrier is the mobile operators.