See where your friends are with Google Latitude

While this may sound scary at first, I suspect it could mature, with people finding the appropriate social norms around this new technology, and slowly integrating into their daily lives. In this sense it could resemble the social network or the mobile phone, where even luddites eventually cave in, as it eventually becomes a no-brainer, benefits greatly outweighing drawbacks.

That said, there is still a long way to go and this technology still has not found a compelling application. The only reason I would consider using it is to be one of the first people to actually figure it out on the ground and potentially find those compelling uses, if they exist.

Seems like google has done a good job on privacy. From Mashable "When it comes to privacy, Google seems to have done it right, since absolutely everything about Latitude is opt-in...you can set it up so that your wife always sees you at work. Why you’d want to do that, we leave to your imagination." http://mashable.com/2009/02/04/google-latitude/

Already posted:

Here: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=465458

Here: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=465359

Oddly, they're both by the same person.

Oh well, there goes Bright Kite.

Am I the only one who started reading and was confused as to what the use was of only knowing someones lattitude? (other them perhaps getting a feel for the expected climate to aid in small talk about the weather).

I think this is direct competitor to Twitter; as it includes not only location but a spot for 'Im at starbucks' too; you can also have followers etc...

- just seems to be a competitor; and not many people are seeing that I think.

This kind of stuff makes me a little uncomfortable. I can imagine someone being in a situation (abusive relationship maybe?) where they are compelled to share this information. Even under normal circumstances it seems a little creepy, but maybe that's just me.

Not saying it's wrong to provide the service or anything like that, just wondering about how it could effect things.

Loopt needs to look to be acquired or abandon the idea of a mobile only social network and focus on leveraging services like Facebook connect. Although there level of funding might make it difficult, I also think they're a great target for Facebook.

In any case, this will be a large space and there is room for multiple players.

With Google's Latitude, I might finally learn where on earth Carmen Sandiego is.

This might make http://www.wherethehellismatt.com/ redundant, if you know where he is all the time.

Mixed feelings about this Google, mixed feelings indeed.

Surprising that Ireland where their European headquarters are located is not among countries where latitude can be used, though it is the same way with twitter. I don't suppose anyone knows the reason?

It's interesting that Google chose to build this out on their own instead of acquiring Loopt (or someone else). Was Loopt even open to an acquisition?