Google Maps & Latitude

10 years ago, you might have met a friend online and after endless hours of chatting you finally agree to meet. Remember, 10 years ago, not many people had digital cameras and a digital picture were often rare. So you wait in the park looking all around you searching for someone holding “Internet For Dummies” in their right hand, while others think you just robbed an old lady.

Today or maybe a couple of years in the future you are sitting in the same park, but this time you are not behaving as if the cops were after you. Instead, you have your eyes glued to your mobile watching that blue dot moving closer to you while those nearby think you are watching YouTube.

Have you ever wanted to know where your friends are? Isn’t it just possible that you and I might have been on the same street, but never realized it?

That is right people. Google recently updated their Google Maps software for mobile and the latest feature is called Latitude which will show where your friends are, if you allow it. That, and you need to have a GPS enabled phone with internet connection (GPRS, EDGE, 3G or even a stolen Wi-Fi).

After using it for some time, my first impression has not changed. It really is a great piece of software. Now all I have to do is get all my friends to buy a GPS enabled handset and enable GPRS.

Not in the far future, you might get discounts and prizes on your mobile because you were at the right place at the right time and told Google where you were.