With an upgrade to its mobile maps, Google Inc. hopes to prove it can track people on the go as effectively as it searches for information on the Internet.
The new software to be released Wednesday will enable people with mobile phones and other wireless devices to automatically share their whereabouts with family and friends.
The feature, dubbed “Latitude,” expands upon a tool introduced in 2007 to allow mobile phone users to check their own location on a Google map with the press of a button.
It could also raise privacy concerns, but Google is doing its best to avoid a backlash by requiring each user to manually turn on the tracking software and making it easy to turn off or limit access to the service.
Google also is promising not to retain any information about its users’ movements. Only the last location picked up by the tracking service will be stored on Google’s computers, Lee said.
The software plots a user’s location – marked by a personal picture on Google’s map – by relying on cell phone towers, global positioning systems or a Wi-Fi connection to deduce their location. The system can follow people’s travels in the United States and 26 other countries.
It’s left up to each user to decide who can monitor their location.
To start out, Google Latitude will work on Research In Motion Ltd.’s Blackberry and devices running on Symbian software or Microsoft Corp.’s Windows Mobile. It will also operate on some T-1 Mobile phones running on Google’s Android software and eventually will work on Apple Inc.’s iPhone and iTouch.
To widen the software’s appeal, Google is offering a version that can be installed on personal computers as well.
The PC access is designed for people who don’t have a mobile phone but still may want to keep tabs on their children or someone else special, Lee said. People using the PC version can also be watched if they are connected to the Internet through Wi-Fi.
Google can plot a person’s location within a few yards if it’s using GPS or might be off by several miles if it’s relying on transmission from cell phone towers. People who don’t want to be precise about their whereabouts can choose to display just the city instead of a specific neighborhood.
There are no current plans to sell any advertising alongside Google’s tracking service, although analysts believe knowing a person’s location eventually will unleash new marketing opportunities. Google has been investing heavily in the mobile market during the past two years in an attempt to make its services more useful to people when they’re away from their office or home computers.
(Source: WCBSTV)
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10 Responses
This is a little big brother for me…
ok, this is where parents are going to start getting much too involved!!
Think of the possibilities. You can track a person in a busy place, like an airport, or in flight, find a family member who might be stuck on the road with car trouble, etc… I think it will be great for those who leave on vacation and want to have someone back home know where they are. This may end problems of not knowing where a person is -or even finding hidden criminals.
There is a program called
“loopt”that has had a tracking ability on blackberry. It has been out for a year already cacallloopttha
My children will have now a bigger excuse to run up a $100.00 phone bill on my cell by texting me.
work ethics watch out when your boss can see were u r every moment its not good
Might this help prevent theft – or at least assist in retrieving stolen phones in the future?
#7, of course,its gonna solve all crime.
we are going to pass a law that all thieves need to keep the gps locator feature ON at all times, especially when they steal a phone
Hey Flatbush Bubby,
I dont understand what shaichis this article has has to texting, buy anyway, whats money when it comes to the kinderlach? oy oy oy.
Listen: Theres something, Its called
U-N-L-I-M-I-T-E-D T-E-X-T-I-N-G.
Its $15 a month.
set it up when you get done with your needlelcraft
#8
You clearly missed the point entirely, and still had the urge to respond with childish sarcasm, which only serves to demonstrate how you failed to understand the question.
The breakthrough achieved by Google enables the tracking of phones by their Signal WITHOUT the use of GPS technology; an option which until now was not available commercially, and was limited to security agencies exclusively, and used only in extreme circumstances. Signal frequency is linked to the phone IMEI number and remains constant regardless of the SIM. If you had enabled tracking on your phone, replacing the SIM would not necessarily affect your ability to continue tracing it.
Now you might be beginning to understand how this service by Google might be a massive step forward in preventing theft, and recovering stolen phones. Got it? Good.