Feb 05, 2009

As we announced yesterday, Google has released Latitude, its extension to Google Maps which allows you to share your location with your friends.

Here are ten reasons why I think it will succeed…

1. It’s Google.
They are big, they are a verb, they are well known and well trusted. Although the mobile apps space seems crowded, the fact that an 800lb Gorilla just entered the room will make it change - and it’ll probably squash a few people, push a few out, sit on a few, and maybe eat some.

It has already ’scaled’. And ladies and gentlemen, it has just entered your building…

http://thenextweb.com/2009/02/05/ten-reasons-google-latitude-succeed/

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Feb 06, 2009

@davidpetherick I like #1. Last year I watched the video's from O’Reilly's Where 2.0 conference. At first I thought it was going to be a bunch of geeks talking about new mapping technology, but quickly learned otherwise. Instead I was introduced to an emerging field known as the Geospatial Web, or as O'reilly likes to call it Where 2.0. One of the speakers I watched there was from Google. He was so passionate about the future applications that are going to emerge from this technology, that it became clear to me that this is very important to Google. From what I gather, this is just the first of many applications we will be seeing from them. I think they realize that this is out of many users comfort zones, and they need to carefully role these services out because of it. They're planning on Where 2.0 becoming a daily part of everyone's life, even if most people don't realize it yet. One of the wilder things they spoke of was a real-time mapping technique using Google Earth. It would allow users to track everything, including objects, in real-time using Google Earth. To be honest with you, all of this is still a little outside of my comfort zone too. Maybe once I start using it, I'll see it the way you do. I still need to buy a smart phone to use it. So, I was wondering if I can use this from iGoogle without activating it from the phone? This way I could keep up with my friends from the desktop until I purchase a new phone. Thanks

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