Google expands navel gazing

Google has ramped up its Latitude service, adding the ability to see where you've been and alert you when your friends are nearby. Latitude already offers the ability to share your location with others, so friends and family can keep tabs on your wanderings, but now you can also see how you ended up in that South London flat …

[Adam Salisbury]

It could be quite handy that

Great for those "What the hell did I do last night??" moments if nothing else

[Anonymous Coward]

Latitude on Android is just as useless as Latitude on the iPhone

"That is unless any of them owns an iPhone - the inability of Apple's handset to support background tasks makes the iPhone unsuitable for Latitude, though it will work as long as the user keeps it in the foreground."

I have a G1. Latitude on Android doesn't update your location unless you have the Maps application running, which makes it just as useless. I develop apps for Android and it's a piece of piss to set a timer which executes some code every x minutes to upload your location to a server. Latitude for Android just doesn't work that way for some reason. "Background update every x minutes" would chew up your battery, but it should at least be an optional feature

[Anonymous Coward]

Excellent

...so I'll be able to get up-to-the-moment details on where everyone is so I can then go and break into their houses and rob them bind?

What a great idea! :-)

[Petey]

It works on MY phone

Not surprised that the iPhone can't keep it going minimised. That phone is merely a fashion accessory. Perfect for uSheep.

My lowly C905 runs Maps 3.0 minimised and shares location without any problems. And it doesn't use much battery either.

[Gulfie]

Hmm, can only be so long before this happens...

http://www.xkcd.com/596/

[Hollerith 1]

very clever, Mr Bond

Get people to accept that Google is collecting data on every aspect of your life, the better to sell to you, by giving them a bit of the fun data so they can sell their souls for a ha'penny of diversion.

[Andrew Culpeck]

Nokia 5800

I have the above phone so I have no problem running this. The GPS is unless so unless you run assisted GPS the phone has no idea where it and hopefully you are.

[Graham Marsden]

So...

... how long before some PHB decides that every employee who leaves the premises has to carry one of these so their every movement can be monitored...?

[James 5]

I detect a difference ..

.. in the comments on El Reg compared with the ecstatic comments on the Latitude Blog.

Humans are equipped with this thing called memory - you use it to remember (a) where you have been and (b) how long you were there.

Perhaps we're seeing the emergence of humans that cannot remember anything over an hour old - in which case I can see that Latitude could be useful.