Start Getting Used To Location Service Before It Gets To You

Google has launched Google Latitude this week which is essentially the extention of Mobile Google Maps to provide real time location information for friends that you have chosen to follow and in turn, have allowed you to follow them.

Images of friends you are tracking will appear on the Google map so you can see their where-about at any given moment in time. You can also instantly choose to interact with them through GTalk, SMS or Gmail.

That may be a little stalker'ish and a bit too creepy for some, but since it is 100% opt-in (which means the really paranoid can't quite get you if you don't let them), it isn't at all bad.  


On the other hand, you can also manually select the location you are at instead of having it shown automatically - a great option for those weary ones, who somehow need to appear to be somewhere else.


Take a moment and consider just what a company with the reach of Google could do with the data it is collecting right now as we speak. 

Think about all that travel habits that can be revealed by Google Latitude users - it is going to create a huge marketing potential isn't it?




Rather than fight it, I am choosing to be excited about the ground breaking functionality of location services and got the app downloaded straight away.  Simply because - we can't quite get away from it any longer.  I really think it's time we get used to this paradigm and start embracing it wholeheartedly.