Google Latitude will be retired | Hacker News Reader

Google Latitude will be retired

support.google.com

55 pointsfranze59 comments

They are moving location sharing from Maps to Google+. I have made a "Location" circle in Google+ for people (mostly family) I want to be able to know my location at all times. So far so good. It makes sense to move what is basically a social feature to Google+.

I have two problems with this though. 1) the viewer currently only works on Android. An iOS interface is promised, but no web viewer. 2) I can decide who in my circles gets to see my location, but not whose locations I see. Meaning the map view includes people whose location I don't care about.

Google is moving all their products to google plus.

This is sad, I disklike too many things about google plus, and don't like the amalgamation, I might want to use one product at a given point, and another at another point, but not wanting to be force to use one when I want to use the other.

don't get why you get downvoted, I agree with your overall sentiment. i couldn't care less about another social network, all I want to use is individual services. really don't want to be tracked across.

already feel creeped out when i need to login to youtube to watch a stupid video behind an age block. now you want to link this info to everything else I am doing on the web? no thanks, no need to present me suggestions based on stupid stuff.

Google+ is essentially the 'account page' of Google products now. You don't have to use the social stuff if you don't want to, but if you want to use anything that does connect you to other people, that's where you go.

What sort of alternative are you proposing / can you give a more specific example?

> Google+ is essentially the 'account page' of Google products now

It makes for terrible interface. If all I want is IM or video with somebody, I was happy with using pidgin from my desktop or an equivalent on Android. By killing xmpp federation, Google forces people still using them for IM to login in G+ and facing a wall of news, feed, forced feed (feed of what's hot), etc...

If I want to check where my friend/spouse/kid is right now, I will now need to log in on G+, which will make me show up as available for IM, face a wall of updates, etc...

I get it they decided to compete with facebook, but I don't like it. There is a silver lining though, people in the open source world were not addressing a lot of those needs, because Google was doing so much better and for free, hopefully we'll see more interesting OSS product coming out (or being re-freshed) to fill the gaps.

This is a shame; my wife and I occasionally use this to figure out when the other one will be home. It's much safer when she's driving for me to look her up on Latitude than to call her all the time.

the feature still exists( it's been rolled into plus now.

... which is exactly the problem some / many ? people have with Google these days. You are forced to use + for features that had been stand-alone.

And Android. This is the second app I used extensively that will no longer be supported on IOS.

It will be added to iOS according to the linked page.

Not sure why they close Latitude before supporting their preferred alternative on all platforms.

Which is a different sort of thing, asks you to hand out a lot more data about yourself, is of questionable use and - cannot be used for quite a number of people I know, me included (I'm one of the 'Hey, don't use anything but your full name or we'll ban you' victims, with no way to use that product ever again without begging, neeling, bending over and first finding someone that resembles support anyway - if I would like to in the first place).

So, the feature's gone.

Two years from now we'll be griping that Google Maps is only available to Google+ users...

You might try Glympse. I think it supports the use case you're meeting right now with Latitude, but I don't have direct experience in pulling the info, though my friends sure love sending me there information.

One of the neat things is it also sends velocity, and an ETA. So when I get a Glympse message from somebody, it usually says something like "Derrick is headed NE on Rte. 3 at 55 MPH", or something to that effect.

http://glympse.com/what_is_glympse

It's less than ideal that they've moved it, but you can continue to use location sharing from Google+. You need to enable it from account settings[1] and specify who can see your location (public, select circles, or individuals).

I think in your circumstances this will be better than Glympse, because your use case is about safety and the ambient location awareness, which isn't what Glympse provides. You have to send someone a "Glympse" notification with your location that has a limited window. Speaking from experience, it is hard to send while driving.

[1] https://www.google.com/settings/plus

I had the opportunity to talk to a board member of Google about Latitude once.

This person told me that Latitude was one of the clearest examples of how age affects your perception on technology. The original pitch for Latitude was "Say you're walking down the street and you look in Google Latitude and you find that a buddy of yours is at a coffee shop a block away. This technology allows you to stop by and say hi."

Immediately, the younger part of the board said "That's really cool!" The older part of the board said "Ugh, I just want to enjoy my coffee in peace."

Maybe Google Latitude merely came at the wrong time. One day, maybe location technology will be more appropriate with evolving social conventions.

But is this really a age thing? I'm 24 and in the situation you described I'd have reacted exactly like "the older part" of the board. Isn't it more dependent on one being more extra- or more introvert? (which could also depend on your mood at the moment...)

I've used it at conferences and concerts. It's a great feature. But I am ALWAYS conscious to turn it off immediately after. I absolute have no desire to be found at a local coffee shop... by anyone.

I really liked the dashboard (https://maps.google.com/locationhistory/b/0/dashboard). I'm going to miss this.

From the FAQ

"If you use Location Reporting and have Location History enabled, your location data will continue to be recorded to your Location History. You can view and manage Location History data on the Location History dashboard."

So you still should be good

Oh! That's good news.

Yeesh... I used this with colleagues during Java One and it was a godsend for meeting up. Don't like the placing off all the google eggs in one Google+ basket. As a user of google+ it may be beneficial... but for those of us who liked to pick and choose functional components it's obnoxious (I recognize we are fewer and thus less financially important to google... just griping).

How exactly is it obnoxious to have a unified interface to manage and organise your friends?

It seems to me that having to manage some on G+ and then some in Latitude would be more annoying and more obnoxious.

Because Google's location service might be the best, but other components might not. What if someone doesn't want to use G+ to "organize [their] friends", they just want a service that provides locations? The way Google did things previously was much more modular, you could pick and choose among products that each did basically one thing. Kind of Unix-y actually.

You're indicting G+ for not allowing modular friend organisation. That's the whole point of 'circles'. Ok so you just want a service that provides locations? If you have a Google account then you can use Plus, that service provides locations, done.

You never have to see or hear or deal with any parts of G+ you don't want to. You don't have to mix friend groups up or assign people to only one label etc.

No question this is probably a better offering for the majority of users... both G+ users and non... it just doesn't work with my flow. I like the analogy of wanting a radio and being offered a car. I could sit in the car and not touch anything else and just listen to the radio... but the fact is I now own a car... even sitting idle a G+ account (or car) has implications.

I don't see the problem of using Google+ for Location only, if that is the only part you care about.

It is not (for me). I manage people who's location I want to see in Latitude, which is a tool I use to see people's location.

With the combining, I need to manage an entire social networking tool in order to see locations. I just want the radio, not a car with a radio in it.

This in addition to convincing people who have never even heard of google+ that they should sign up and manage for themselves, rather than simply accept an invitation email and forget about it.

It's like asking for scissors, and being handed a giant swiss army knife. Sure, it has scissors in it - but they are not as good, harder to find, and mixed in with a bunch of stuff I just don't want or need.

> I need to manage an entire social networking tool in order to see locations.

This is hyperbole, you do not need to 'manage' anything. You put people in circles and you are done.

It's also very likely that your friends do have a Google account, so it's not really too far fetched.

Oh and for what it's worth, if someone handed me a swiss army knife instead of scissors, I would just use the scissors on it, but I guess ymmv.

Going to be harder for people to clone that than Reader :/

Out of curiosity, why do you say that? I would expect it's as simple as creating a polling/request call to the phone's GPS coordinates. The data can be stored on an application's server and then displayed onto any mapping choice for that person's "group".

I haven't dabbled much in mobile development, so I really couldn't say how hard it overall would be.

Reader is actually harder since it provided RSS feeds for websites that didn't support RSS (using the in-house indexed data)

Focus... Making fewer products better.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/karstenstrauss/2012/07/05/google...

Google still has a lot more products than Apple but hopefully their focus will mean a much better Android and Google Docs, for example. Google Docs hasn't changed much in years.

Yeah but the focus has all been on Google+. Is Docs a + thing? No. I'd worry if I were you.

Mail isn't a + thing. Mail isn't going anywhere.

Mail isn't a + thing... yet.

GMail is already integrated with Google+.

Google Docs will likely be integrated with Google+ soon, the document sharing is currently based on GMail groups and contacts, I'd expect them to supplement/replace those with Google+ circles and contacts.

Anyone know of a good alternative?

writing down your gps coords every few hours and sending it to the nsa via snail mail?

But what if I want it automated? :)

Make an Android app that periodically makes HTTP requests whose body contains the word 'bomb' and the GPS coordinates of a particular street intersection near your phone. Bonus points for including Arabic lorem ipsum.

It should be noted that if you are not doing any of this, and you're opting out of all these tracking systems (just in case someone has that crazy idea), you're aiding the enemy.

Interesting. If whole population of HN did that, would it put a dent into NSA processing power/capabilities?

If there are any dents in their processing power/capabilities, they'll quickly improve their capacity to accommodate it.

It doesn't seem they're removing any features, just merging the product with G+, so it should remain pretty much the same.

To send / receive information about one particular user for a limited amount of time, Glympse is very good.

haven't used it but this allows you to share your location for a limited period of time:

http://www.glympse.com/

Google+ has the feature, although I haven't used it. I'm pretty sure you can use it for only specific people.

Where is this feature in Google +? Is it supported in the IOS Google + App?

There is a setting on the browser for location sharing.

The Location tab in the Android app. iOS support promised "soon". No mention of web support, which is in Latitude (for viewing).

Find My Friends: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.fsp.androi...

According to the FAQ, the location history will not be retired, which is really the only functionality of latitude that I use/have seen others use.

A feature now available only in the NSA plan. :(

How long until you don't get proper search results unless you log in to Google+.

That's already the case. My personalised search results pages are often way better than the generic ones. I added the Hacker News circle and a lot of you link a lot of very interesting and valuable articles.

Do G+ circles really influence search? If so, that's super annoying, because then I have to be careful what G+ circles I join. Personalized search is already annoying enough.

You don't 'join' circles. You put people /in/ circles.

They influence search by increasing the relevance of links by people sharing them or +1ing them. You can just turn them off on the results page it seems but I have found it very beneficial.

Why is it already annoying? The only reasons I've heard have been hypothetical.

Sorry, I didn't see your comment earlier.

Putting people 'in' and joining is functionally the same, that's what I meant.

The reason it annoys me is that I usually want my searches to be objective and global, not influenced by my preferences. I suppose a solution might be if their UI showed the influence clearly.

Should have figured that was the case, but even not logged in Google's search results are so much better that they have a practical, if not legal, monopoly on search. Trying to have any privacy these days is like trying to stop the tide with a sand castle.

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