Comments

13 responses to “Do you frequently benefit from knowing the location of friends via Latitude or other Geolocation services?”

1. 2010/08/19

   alecm

   Results viewable at http://twtpoll.com/r/s1g30o

   Reply
2. 2010/08/19

   Richard H

   I’ve never used it for friends yet. However, I suspect that had it been around 12 years ago, I might have done. However, when Oscar is a bit older, I can see that I would like something similar to Google Latitude to show me where he is.

   Of course, that starts to raise questions of where the line is drawn between being a responsible parent and being an intrusive/paranoid parent.

   I can also see the possibility of using it for things like sponsored events where friends can see where I am for the duration of that event.

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3. 2010/08/19

   Chris Samuel

   It’s of amusement value more than anything at the moment, and I suspect its value is proportionate to the number of friends you have (regularly) using it.

   It’s told me once that a friend was nearby, that was when I was sat opposite him on the train and turned it on to see if someone else was around. 🙂

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4. 2010/08/19

   Matthias Daues

   I’ve tried it out. In a nutshell: It has been of no value to me. The information didn’t add to what I knew about the people I care about (friends and family), and the information provided about people I’d chance encountered on the web were not actionable. I’d never try to “accidentally” meet someone in real life without an agreed upon reason and mutual, written or mailed or tungled or whatever, consent.

   The technology makes prying, stalking, being a paranoid parent, a suspicious boss, etc. an ubiquitous and comfortable choice, though. Aziraphale would be proud.

   For those offering the service it greatly improves the granularity and validity of collected consumer data, recording not only online behavioural patterns, but also real world behaviours in time and space.

   So all in all, the distribution of benefit is clearly lopsided to the more unsavory aspects of the complex 🙂

   Best, Matthias

   Reply
5. 2010/08/19

   Dogsbody

   That is an amazingly loaded question! Do I “frequently benefit” from it, no! Have I used it and has it been useful to me, Yes!

   A few times now I have been at the same event as someone or in another city at the same time same someone else. I have used their social updates to see that they are local and arrange meetups or just to hone in on where they are (and the fun is).

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   1. 2010/08/19

      alecm

      Yes, it is loaded. And? 🙂

      Reply
6. 2010/08/19

   J Irving

   I find Latitude entertaining at times, 4sq and gowalla less so, mainly because the gaming aspects of those don’t appeal to me. I like to see where Haroon is at 🙂

   The most benefit I’ve had from geolocation was using Brightkite in 2008, as we traveled from our old home (Vancouver Island) to our new one (Toronto). I was able to *almost* automagically construct a pretty good route map to show to people. It wasn’t good enough though, and other efforts seem to have focused on silly game-related stuff I don’t care about, rather than stuff I’d find genuinely useful.

   But, I still find it entertaining, and as with so many incremental changes, I would like to see its casual usage grow so that when a truly bright idea comes along, there is sufficient penetration for it to such an idea to reach critical mass quickly enough to survive.

   (I hoped the same for Google Wave, but not enough to actually use it, and I guess no such idea came quickly enough.)

   I understand the privacy concerns – cf the usual FB backlash which is currently underway – but I don’t really care that much. Folk who don’t want to expose their location at all should of course be accommodated, although for the most part I think they are experiencing risk assessment fail. That is very common though, and there’s no reason to indulge it any less in this case than we do in others.

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7. 2010/08/21

   Julie

   Knowing where people are right now hasn’t been useful to me, but knowing where people go has been – ie in finding new routes or places that also interest me. I’m sure that I could get this information by talking to them, but I usually have more important things to talk about with my friends and colleagues than where to shop or a shortcut from one neighborhood to another.

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8. 2010/08/21

   Chris Samuel

   One interesting side effect of Latitude though is I can see that you (Alec) and a friend of mine from VPAC now living in the UK are currently a short walk from each other in central London. 😉

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   1. 2010/08/22

      alecm

      There’s a job in the CIA just waiting for you… 🙂

      Reply
9. 2010/08/22

   Chris Gerhard

   I’ve wished some of my cycling companions had it so we could tell where people were when we got split up.

   Beyond that I has helped just once when a friend found me in a pub thanks to latitude. Once in 3 years… or so.

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10. 2010/08/30

    Gilles

    I use it a lot. It’s fun. I love when my phone tells me “you’re near XXX and it’s not because you’re in the usual place”. Time to send an SMS and meet up for a drink.

    It’s just pure joy. 🙂

    Gilles.

    Reply
11. 2010/11/08

    Dave Levy

    Not regularly, since not many of my friends use it, but it’s cool when it works, especially when its a surprise. Say when a friend turns up to the same conference as you, or is in a meeting in the pub round the corner.

    Reply