Jim Haysom | This Is Your Life an internet professional in digital advertising

Find my location on Google Latitude with mobile maps

How many times have you phoned a friend for an impromptu beer, to only find out they are out of town or you get that international dialling tone, that you quickly hang up on.

Well the good news is that Google have just launched a new service called Google Latitude that uses their Google Maps for mobile application and bridges the GPS positioning of your mobile phone to show your location on a map.

Pretty impressive, and what's even better is that you can invite your friends and family, allowing you to share your location in real-time and see where they are too.

The privacy folk are likely to question how much more is Google becoming Big Brother will all this data we are sharing them.  From web search history, personal emails in Gmail, instant chat with Talk, shopping and transaction history with Wallet, video preferences with YouTube, our inner thoughts with Blogger and the sites we visit with DoubleClick.  It makes you think what they don't already know, but it becomes powerful when you can start to link services together.

Google Latitude is just another step forward in their ability to innovate and lead the field with services that make our life easier.  Whether this service remains free forever, is turned into a paying subscription model, or funded through targeted advertising, millions of people will sign up for it.

Just look at Twitter, and they've managed to grow to a base of millions with a free service, with an apparent 2,000 new accounts a day.  They will start to monetise this once they feel they have the capacity to do so, and I feel Google will do the same.  It's not like there are many competitors out there to take market share.

If people start to use Google Latitude with their iPhones, then expect to find a lot more friend requests in your email inbox.  Should they develop this into an iGoogle widget, imagine the fun you could have with it from your desktop, or how useful it would be on your Smartphone, or Nokia for example, whilst out and about.

For example,

1. See where I am on the London Marathon 2008 course on April 26th, and get to the next mile marker to cheer me on, or
2. See if I'm in town or in the area to grab a beer after work at the local pub.

This reminds me of 24, and Jack Bauer asking CTU to triangulate the co-ordinates to see where someone was from their mobile phone signal.  With GPS tracking from mobile phones, we can do a lot more with geolocation services.

Imagine if Google used Latitude alongside Google Maps for Mobile and microblogging such as Twitter, to help you find your friends, like a sat nav.  It could go something like this;

... in 100 yards turn right.  Continue for 50 yards and Dave is in the Duke of York pub on the left, enjoying a pint of Guinness.  Text him now so your drink will be waiting on the bar on your arrival.

At least it would make life easier knowing which pub your work colleagues or friends were in on a Friday or Saturday evening.  Although the last thing you need is the better half knowing you are still there  at last orders, hours after you had promised you were on your last drink and about to leave.