Latitude for Business

Do you have a blackberry? Are you friends with people who have a blackberry? Would you want your friends to know where you are without having to tell them? Latitude is for you.

Different from many of the 'Check In' based apps out there like Gowalla and FourSquare, Google Latitude is much simpler, and (personally) more useful. Many have said that it's too big-brother to share real-time GPS location with their friends, but I have to say-- when you're trying to pull off the ultimate Romantic Weekend in Niagara Falls, and your friends are on their way down via car from Toronto, knowing where they are to time the surprise in the lobby is unbelievable. Just ask Danielle and Claire.

First, it's Google Maps. Amazing maps, overlay for satellite or traffic, plus streetview where available. This is ridiculous. Street view on a mobile device is the best thing to happen to "I can't find the place" since sliced bread. Since Google Latitude is a service that's fully integrated with Google Maps, there's no switching or closing, just turn it on, and your friends appear on the map. Assuming many of your friends are savvy and awesome like you, when you are in a part of town that you don't normally go to, you can see who's around and maybe who's already at the party, etc.  Great for meeting up, timing a rendezvous, or seeing where the action is.

Second, it's got individual privacy settings. Say you want your wife to know exactly where you are, but your out of town friends to just know that you're 'In Town' you can customize who sees what. You can even temporarily set a location if you're supposed to be at the dentist but you're at the ball game instead.

Third, the

generator.  Quietly and securely, Google is keeping track of all of the GPS data funneled through Latitude in a Location History page. I can view where I've been, what time, what route I took, etc.  I see this useful for two things: 1) Accused of a crime I didn't commit. 2) Business owner tracking all of their employees/fleet/deliveries, etc.   What a great tool to be able to see utilization of a team of couriers, or track the travel routes of the pizza guys to optimize delivery time.  Business can use this for Business reasons.  (Just tell your employees you're tracking them, for the love of god.)

What are some other ways that businesses (who spend all this money on Blackberrys just so that their employees can read email and make calls) can use apps like this to save or make money? How about insurance claims?  If you're already tracking GPS with a Time/Date stamp, you could have employees take a photo of an accident (or whatever incident would be relevant to your business) and email it.  Great. But what about something that benefits the customer?  Real time "Where is my Pizza?" maybe? UPS does it (sort of) with package tracking, but the next step in that evolution is a real-time GPS location on that package. Or Pizza.

The downfall for individuals, much like the other services I mentioned-- if your friends don't use it, what's the point. It's a very symmetrical social networking tool. It makes very little sense to share your exact location with strangers, so this type of networking is more akin to the privacy of Facebook or trusted-walled-garden of LinkedIn, vs. the openness and random sharing and asymmetry of Twitter and the like. It does work for business though.

Since those with a blackberry should be using Google Maps instead of Blackberry maps

, I recommend you test this out with a trusted friend.