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Google's Sneaky Launch of Latitude's Location-Sharing API
Google has extended their location sharing service Latitude (Radar post) with the first set of Latitude Apps. One of them is a blog badge for sharing your location publicly on a website. The other updates your GTalk status for sharing your location to your IM network. Both have to be turned on explicitly and allow you to share your location at the city level or as accurately as possible. These have generated a lot of press, but I haven't seen much discussion about the first sighting of the Latitude API. On the blog badge page, below the fold there are two URLs that will show up *after* you turn on the blog badge (so it wasn't that sneaky, you just had to scroll below the fold or look on their Geo Developers blog to learn about it). Developers can get access to their own or other users' location with these URLs. The URLs let you access the data as KML or JSON. They look like: KML -> http://www.google.com/latitude/apps/badge/api?user=<ID>&type=kml I've included the JSON file and some documentation after the jump. These are just the first signs of Google's Latitude API. This is a barebones release that I think is designed to see what developers do with it and how people react to public sharing (geo-broadcasting). These initial feeds do support multiple users (just add another ID separated by a comma) and could be used to build many types of apps. Let me know if you build one for yourself or others. This is not going to be the end all be all of the Latitude API. I theorize that we will see some of the following features added for a formal release of the API.
User Control & OAuth - Right now a user can only turn the sharing on or off. Once they've shared out their badge or their user ID there is no way to know who else is tracking them. You can't even currently reset your User ID if you inadvertently share it - your only option to block a rogue app is to turn off sharing completely. I am hoping that in a future version Google adds OAuth and let's you turn on/off access to different apps. These apps should also be able to receive different levels of accuracy (some should get my city, others my exact location).
For a developer release this has several important features that deserve more discussion:
Accuracy Control - You can currently set your location to be shared at the city-level or as accurately as possible. Personally I'd like to have neighborhood added as an option. I can't personally picture ever needing more privacy than city-level and still wanting to have Latitude on -- plus you can always lie via Latitude.
This is just the first step in a Google location-sharing API and Apps. Latitude will end up in a place very similar to FireEagle, Yahoo's location broker (Radar post). Latitude is significant not just because it comes from Google, but because of its wide reach. Google has clients available for almost every mobile platform and many browsers. People just want a service like Latitude to work and currently Google is one of the only companies that can deliver (though I am sure Facebook and MySpace are working on something internally). Google's Steven Lee of the Latitude team is speaking at Where 2.0 in two weeks. Use whr09rdr for 25% off registration. I am sure that there will be announcements about Latitude at either Where 2.0 or Google I/O. Here's what they tell developers: Both the KML and JSON feeds support multiple users. Alter the user parameter to use a comma-separated list of user identifiers instead of a single one. Here is an example of the JSON: { "type": "FeatureCollection",
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Comments: 12
CraigD [ 6 May 2009 04:17 AM]
Not sure if it's me or Google?
http://www.google.com/Latitude 404s,
http://www.google.com/latitude works...
I guess they're using Unix web servers? or else it's a problem at my end... the first 'Latitude' link in the post 404ed for me which is why I noticed
Jason Devitt [ 6 May 2009 07:52 AM]
Brady, great article, except for one point - how can Google offer Latitude on the iPhone without background processing? Without that, I have to launch an app to report my location. Push notification in 3.0 will only add the ability to nag me to launch the app.
brady [ 6 May 2009 10:46 AM]
@jason
Apple's lack of support for background location updating is very frustrating. Until Apple adds it your location would be updated whenever you accessed the Maps and/or Latitude application. This is a poor substitute for constant updating, but it is still better than no method of updating.
I discussed my disappointment with Apple's plan in my article Apple's Big Location Chance, Or When Is The iPhone Going To Use That GPS? last year.
Busti [ 6 May 2009 11:01 AM]
The follow link does not work:
www.google.com/Latitude
Look at the top of the Blog.
John McKerrell [ 6 May 2009 11:02 AM]
You can store your Google Latitude history on mapme.at, you can also use that to push it through to your Yahoo! Fire Eagle account to use with the large number of FE apps!
@jason I imagine most people run Google Maps for Mobile in the foreground even on phones that support background processing? We at mapme.at have (foreground) iPhone support through InstaMapper and background iPhone support through a cunning hack, both of those mentioned at the bottom of this blog post
brady [ 6 May 2009 11:24 AM]
@Busti - Fixed, thanks. I am not used to URLs being case-sensitive.
brady [ 6 May 2009 11:25 AM]
@John - Thanks for the head's up. You've got your own post now: That Was Fast: Mapme.at Uses Latitude API
Prem [13 May 2009 07:22 AM]
Hi,
Thanks for that info.
Do you know if there is a way for the web site to update the user's location automatically? I see most user's lazy about updating their position, so what would be important is for the web site to do a call into the Google and update the user's position on the site automatically.
Any idea if this is doable?
Rob Cleghorn [26 May 2009 03:23 PM]
FootprintHistory.com you can use Google Latitude to keep your facebook friends updated on your where abouts. It also does what it says on the box and keeps a history of your locations...
Fritz Jörn [15 September 2009 04:05 AM]
I tried looking at my location (see www.Joern.com/Wo) with an Iphone: works all right. with a Blackberry: no good.
And don’t confuse looking at someone’s whereabouts vs. the location input going to Latitude.
Enjoy. Fritz
Roy [ 1 October 2009 09:22 AM]
For those who wants to remember where they've been,
http://lahilo.free.fr enables to keep history and can also display it in a badge.
andrew vzw htc adr6350 [24 August 2011 04:14 PM]
I have a Google accout under a different email. I noticed my girlfriend always showing up in strange places. Not worried. Lol I'm not a Chester or anything lol. Anyway my friend said she's monitering my phone. Droid incredible 2 with Verizon have Google account. In my Google Picasso profile it says I have a pic. I don't. When I click on pic a address comes up. Google public location badge and a wired is. Is there anyone that can tell me how to prevent shareing my location? On her phone I turned on her god all 3 and went to Google maps from her phone. Turned all on. Her phone can't locate her position even. Wired. Also her phone number with two zeros imfront of it shows up as her mobile hotspot said and another number different from her phone number. Went into programming menu and her phone number or the one I call doesn't show up anywhere on phone menus. I have same phone. Her number I call is let's say (555)888-6954. The number in programming menu is (509)888-0940. On my sons its (509)955-1851 and in program menu its (509)9551551. Wired.. also a lot of phone calls and texts in history to and from 0000006121. 0000099883 . 0000011111. And last in myverizon.com my accout under usage controls or whatever the phone numbers that are in program menu that are not their phone numbers are blocked? May sound crazy but my buddy looked into it and said she had somthing in her phone history about "my spy bubble account". Please send any links info or whatever. It's due to we were planning on getting married. It seems she isn't keeping tabs on me because she thinks I'm up to anything its because she wants to be sure she won't get caught. Advice to be sure would help. We have kids and I need proof to know what to do. Can't afford much. Any ideas. My phone again is a HTC incredible 2 with sin card. Aft6350 says its Linux OS Android 2.3.3 open source HTC sense 2.1. quietly brilliant. Webkit 533.1. Please don't erase this point me it right direction. How can I know? Live in spokane wa.