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| Developer(s) | |
| Initial release | February 5, 2009 |
| Operating system | Cross-Platform |
| Available in | English |
| Development status | Beta |
| Type | Web application |
| License | Google Latitude[1] |
| Website | www.google.com/latitude |
Google Latitude is a location-aware mobile app developed by Google. Latitude allows a mobile phone user to allow certain people on to track their location. Via their own iGoogle accounts, the user's cell phone location is mapped on Google Maps. The user can control the accuracy and details of what each of the other users can see — an exact location can be allowed, or it can be limited to identifying the city only. For privacy, it can also be turned off by the user, or a location can be manually entered. The user must enable the location features of the phone, which are normally only transmitted to emergency telephone numbers such as wireless E911.
Google's 2005 acquisition, Dodgeball, offered similar facility to users by way of SMS. With Google Latitude, the service has expanded to PCs (it uses IP geolocation as well as user driven input) and automated location detection on mobile phones using Cell-ID, Cellular Positioning, and GPS.
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Privacy concerns
Amid concerns over locational privacy,[1] Google announced that Latitude overwrites a user's previous location with the new location data, and does not keep logs of locations provided to the service.[2][3] Nevertheless, Latitude users can opt-in to keeping a history of their locations in Google Latitude.[4]
Compatibility
Google Latitude is compatible with most devices running Android, BlackBerry OS, Windows Mobile, Symbian s60, and the iPhone.[5][6]
Initially Google promised on the Latitude page that it would be available for Java (J2ME) phones, but this claim was later removed from the site.
Both the Sony Ericsson W995, C903 and C510 mobile phones support Google Latitude as part of their built-in Google Maps application. Although this is a J2ME application, it cannot be downloaded for use with other mobile phones.
See also
References
- ^ "Google Latitude Spurs Privacy Backlash", by Thomas Claburn, InformationWorld, February 5, 2009. Retrieved April 15, 2009/
- ^ "Google Latitude to Cops: 'I Don't Remember'", by Ryan Singel, Wired, March 05, 2009. Retrieved April 15, 2009.
- ^ "EXCLUSIVE: Google Takes a Stand for Location Privacy, Along with Loopt", by Kevin Bankston, EFF, March 4th, 2009. Retrieved April 15, 2009/
- ^ Google Location History Help
- ^ ""Google Support: Supported Phones". Google. http://www.google.com/support/mobile/bin/answer.py?answer=136640. Retrieved 2009-08-04.
- ^ http://googlemobile.blogspot.com/2009/07/google-latitude-now-for-iphone.html
External links
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