Google’s newest mobile app—Latitude—allows users to keep track of where they, and their friends, are at all times, reports CNET. The phone-based application debuts today and opens up a new vista for social networking. The software allows users—tracked via GPS and by proximity to phone towers and wireless networks—to continually broadcast their location in broad—or very narrow—terms.
Location-based services are the leading edge of targeted advertising that will allow companies to broadcast specific ads to consumers based on their actual location. Google has long had a fascination with maps and mapping applications, and sees Latitude as an extension of its search engine-based advertising model.
(More Google stories.)