Google Latitude now lets you track your friends from its website

While Google’s Latitude location sharing service has been around for some time now, it’s only ever really made sense on mobile phones. A glaring omission was a proper web-based version to get an overview of where your friends are.
Today, Google has launched a reworked Latitude homepage that does just that. You can now see your friends (and yourself) on a map, manage friend requests and control privacy settings. The new page also makes the service’s excellent stats package (showing trips you’ve made, time spent at work and much more) more easily accessible.
Although there was previously an iGoogle widget that allowed you to see your friends’ current locations, Google’s Kenneth Leftin says “We’ve since learned that a desktop experience is important to you even if you’re already using Latitude on your phone”.
The new site certainly makes Latitude a more ‘complete’ experience, but the service’s low profile compared to social check-in services like Foursquare means it may not get much use. A shame because as we’ve argued previously, Latitude is one of the best ways to “stalk yourself“. Maybe many people simply don’t want to do that. On Android phones, Latitude can track you exact location in real time. Maybe that’s simply too “creepy” for some.

Posted on Oct 06th, 2010 by Martin Bryant

Facebook Places boosts Foursquare awareness and users

Image via CrunchBase

Long-rumoured as a 'Foursquare-killer', Facebook Places, a geolocation tool for the already wildly successful social networking site, has reported spurred growth in the location market leader, Foursquare.
According to chief executive Dennis Crowley, since the launch of Places, Foursquare saw its "biggest day ever in terms of new signups."
Foursquare is currently the most successful location-based social tool in terms of user numbers and revenues. The service allows users to 'check in' to establishments - including bars and restaurants or local attractions - and reap rewards if offered by the particular business.
Mimicking one of Foursquare's key features, Facebook Places also allows users to check in upon arrival at their favourite hang-out spots. However, that's where the similarities seem to end for the two competing applications.
Both available as mobile handset applications, which make use of a phone's built-in GPS chip, Places does not currently have a rewards system in place with local businesses. With Foursquare, top visitors can become 'mayors' of select locations, where often the business in question will reward them with free or discount goods.
At present, the Big Blue F's new venture only functions as a tool to let other friends within a social network know where to find you, and this could prompt users to investigate Foursquare, which features more comprehensive technologies.
In addition, whereas Places has only infiltrated specific markets of the United States, as Facebook tries to configure how much capacity will be taken up by user information related to the service, Foursquare is available in locations worldwide.
However, as the Places feature matures, the webbing world could be faced with yet another David v Goliath battle, as the half-billion users of Facebook, or even its 150 million mobile users, dwarf the circa 3 million subscribers to the Foursquare service.

20 August 2010 | Author: J. Morton Search Copywriter