Technology in Mind

I downloaded and installed Google’s Latitude software on my HTC Windows Mobile phone this past Wednesday. It’s integrated into a new version of Google Maps, I simply downloaded and installed the new .cab file.  The only difference this time was that after launching Google Maps I logged in with my Google account credentials and agreed to use the latitude tracking software. There was a lot of ‘twitter noise’ concerning Google Latitude  and fear that this was going to encroach on people’s privacy. However, the service is opt-in with privacy controls that permit only those you’ve befriended to Google’s Latitude to see where you’re at. You can also turn it off completely or on a per person basis.  You can even manually set your location to make it appear as if you’re somewhere that you’re not.

I live in a small town with probably fewer cell towers than Google was counting on, so for non-GPS cell tower triangulation the accuracy was quite poor. But I do have an external bluetooth GPS unit, and this pinpointed my exact location.

I’ve tried to come up with some possible real life uses for this application beyond what Google’s stated and so far I haven’t come up with many. After it’s initial novelty wears off, I do wonder how useful it will be.  However, that was my initial thoughts when I signed up for Twitter and a number of other new technologies before I found ways to make use of them.

As I was in the midst of writing this, my Dad actually invited me to be a contact on Latitude, so it’s popularity seems to be quickly growing, at least with the geek crowd.

Nabeeha Khan discusses how to Access blocked websites without using proxies.

“We are all tired of proxies which are slow and full of popups and advertisement. Seriously using a proxy for safe browsing…”