Google Latitude Announces Changes

[Jeff Campbell]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://mashable.com/2009/11/10/google-latitude-features/' target='_blank'>http://mashable.com/2009/11/10/goog...itude-features/</a><br /><br /></div><p><em>"One of the hottest trends right now is the rise of location-based services (LBS), which helps friends network and find each other based on their location. Foursquare and Loopt are prime examples of these growing networks."</em></p><p><img src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com/resizer/thumbs/size/600/at/auto/1257979041.usr105634.jpg" style="border: 1px solid #d2d2bb;" /></p><p>And now Google is getting involved, but contrary to the commercial, they don't have an app for that. However it does work with Google maps via the web browser. Or to make it easy you can get the Google app and access it there. I'm thinking since most of my friends have a Gmail account, this may be a good option for me. What are your thoughts? Have you given this a try yet? Are you?&nbsp;</p>

[Chris Gohlke]

I'm setting this up on our Droid's tonight. Looks pretty neat.

[Jeff Campbell]

It works pretty well from the limited testing I've done on my iPhone, how do you like the Droid?

[Chris Gohlke]

So far so good. I've only had it for 24 hours, but I've put it through it's paces. I've been using a touch for a while, but really didn't want to go to ATT, so the droid was a good fit. My only beef thusfar is no Kindle app. The OSK on the touch is definitely superior on the Touch, but the screen is better on the droid. The physical keyboard isn't great, but is not bad.

[Chris Gohlke]

I've found that on droid, the GPS doesn't fire up unless you load the map application. So, if the person you are trying to locate only has their phone on and not the maps (as would normally be the case) then the location will only be as accurate as the closest tower. So I've been seeing the location be off by about a half mile.