Google adds Location History dashboard to Latitude

Google announced the addition of a new beta dashboard allowing mobile users who've enabled its Latitude friend finder service and Location History tracking tool to highlight trends from past travels and activities. "Ever wonder how much time you've spent at work recently compared to six months ago, or where it was that you stopped on your last road trip? Just check out Location History for some of the answers," write Google Mobile Team software engineers Andrew Kirmse and Kenny Leftin on the Official Google Mobile Blog. Beyond site-specific data, the dashboard also compiles information like total miles traveled since the user activated Latitude and Location History. Google adds the service is opt-in only, with location histories available solely to the user.

Earlier this month, Google announced that Latitude now tops 3 million active users, adding that more than 8 million users have signed up since the solution went live in early 2009. Despite the attention lavished upon up-and-coming location-based social networking services like Foursquare, Gowalla and MyTown, Latitude continues to grow 30 percent month-over-month, with over 10 percent of Android smartphone owners now using the service. Latitude enables smartphone users to triangulate the whereabouts of family and friends, offering the approximate location of contacts that decide to share their activities. In addition, Latitude enables users to communicate via SMS, Google Talk, Gmail or status update, as well as upload new profile photos on the fly.

For more on the Location History dashboard:
- read this Official Google Mobile Blog entry

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