Given the rapidly declining state of the economy, a lot of businesses have been hit with layoffs, buyouts and lame marketing schemes.
Even corporate giants like Google have been affected, having recently let 100 of its recruiters go and, subsequently, reducing its hiring rate.
It has been a downhill tumble from once great heights since Google cut its famous catered lunches and other employee luxuries and now has turned to dropping Web services. This includes Google Video, Jaiku, Notebook and others.
Some of these were a long time coming (why own Google Video and YouTube?) while others were an unwelcome surprise. This sentiment is largely directed at Dodgeball, a social networking service that operated through SMS messages on users' mobile devices.
Dodgeball was an interesting experiment in social and geolocation functionality in new Web usability and eventually grew into a community of diehard users in 22 cities across the nation.
Seeing potential in the service, Google acquired the service back in 2005, but the site was gradually replaced by other mobile-enabled services with similar functionality and more entertaining names like Loopt and Brightkite.
However, Dodgeball was never fully supplanted by these other services for those in busier, more techno-savvy cities like San Francisco and the like. So, it's pretty easy to imagine the disdain loyal Dodgeball users now harbor towards Google for shutting down their greatest social management asset.
Enter Google's new services is Latitude, the tool every stalker with a restraining order has been waiting for.
In the world of location-based services, this is huge news. Since so many people have a Google account already, all that's required is either adding the service to your iGoogle page or installing Google Maps v3.0 or above on a compatible mobile device (most BlackBerry, Windows Mobile 5.0, and Symbian S60 phones) with iPhone and G1 apps forthcoming.
Once set up with that, all that you have to do is update your status á la Twitter style and then your location by manually entering the address you're at or allowing the application's auto-locater do its magic.
Then you can add friends through e-mail addresses or your Gmail address book and track them on Google Maps or chat with them with Google Talk. This may sound incredibly awesome, what with being able to follow your friends' every move, but don't forget that this also works the other way and they'll be able to track you just as easily.
However, the privacy controls are fairly comprehensive and easy to manage what you do and don't share.
Latitude is a huge step in the location-tracking world. It has excellent integration with other Google services and has even better privacy controls, which is clearly the biggest problem with these sorts of applications.
Consider the fact that when AOL accidentally released three months' of search and user information, the ensuing drama was one of the largest digital privacy debacles ever. Now consider how much dirt Google has on you and what could happen if all that and your day-to-day locations were slipped to the unsavory folk of the Internet.
However, like I said, Google has done a great job with Latitude's privacy settings and information storage, so there isn't as much to worry about (yet).
However, I feel for those who are getting ripped out of their Dodgeball habit and being forced to adopt new paradigms. Pownce developer Leah Culver regularly laments the loss of the service, linking on her Twitter to a perfect summation of her feelings by a Ryan King's Tumblr: "I feel like my friend who used to date a really cool guy is now dating some boring, not-as-good-looking asshat."
Admittedly, I never used Dodgeball since the Dallas network was primarily aimed at downtown establishments, but I can easily say I was jealous of those who could use the service to its fullest.
And after tinkering around with Latitude as well as other geolocation services like Brightkite, I can also easily say that I'm not all that crazy about Latitude. The draw of webapps like Twitter and Brightkite is, though dedicated software was available, the primary method of interaction for the majority of its users on the move is SMS.
Latitude, however, is purely Google app driven. I would much prefer to receive a text about nearby friends or send a text about what I'm currently doing than open an application and blunder through a few menus to do what I want to get done.
Even though Google made it to its usual standards - its interface is spectacular, and its features and Google product integration are fantastic - Latitude is not something many people will probably end up using.
Location-based services simply have not hit a critical mass of users where it's a use-or-die sort of situation and probably won't until social networking giants MySpace and Facebook jump on the geolocation bandwagon.
So until then, give Twitter or Brightkite a try. I hear micro-blogging is all the rage nowadays.
Be the first to comment on this article!