Google debuts Latitude mobile friend finder

Google announced the launch of Latitude, a new Google Maps for mobile feature enabling smartphone users to triangulate the whereabouts of family and friends. The opt-in service offers the approximate location of contacts who decide to share their activities with friends--according to Google, Latitude enables users to determine whether their spouse in stuck in traffic, discover when a friend is in town for the weekend or heave a sigh of relief when a loved one's plane lands safely. In addition, Latitude enables users to communicate via SMS, Google Talk, Gmail or status update, as well as uploading new profile photos on the fly.

Latitude seeks to prevent privacy concerns by only storing a user's last recorded location, making it impossible for Google to track their whereabouts over time. "We recognize the sensitivity of location data, so we've built fine-grained privacy controls right into the application," writes Google VP of engineering Vic Gundotra on The Official Google Blog. "Everything about Latitude is opt-in. You not only control exactly who gets to see your location, but you also decide the location that they see. For instance, let's say you are in Rome. Instead of having your approximate location detected and shared automatically, you can manually set your location for elsewhere--perhaps a visit to Niagara Falls. Since you may not want to share the same information with everyone, Latitude lets you change the settings on a friend-by-friend basis. So for each person, you can choose to share your best available location or your city-level location, or you can hide. Everything is under your control and, of course, you can sign out of Latitude at any time."

Google will launch the service in 27 international markets on BlackBerry, S60 and Windows Mobile smartphones. Android is scheduled to follow in the next few days, with an iPhone version (via the Google Mobile App) also in the pipeline.

For more on Google Latitude:
- read this Official Google Blog entry

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