Google Latitude
Location updates for others to track you
January 2011
Latitude was built as yet another social networking tool. You allow friends to see where you are, you can see them and if you're ever close, you can get together. The side effect is that those same friends can keep tabs on your location at other times, too. This is of course if you have it set liberally, to broadcast your location all the time.
It applies to RV travelers this way:
We set it up to receive a signal from our GPS enabled phone (Nokia E71) running Google Maps, which we L-O-V-E for local, right NOW navigation on foot or behind the wheel. (article) The location can be modified to be visible to specific people, or anyone at all (as ours is), but it's set up to only show the city that we're in, instead of my location as close as 10 feet. This way, you know we're around, but not able to rob the bus of the potato stash or microscope setup by watching our every move.
Now, our location is easy for me, timely and current for you and my Mom.
But, no more: "We're on the beach", when we're parked in downtown Yuma. (although that never happened specifically)
(If you don't have a GPS enabled phone) you can change your location manually, or if you're supposed to be somewhere you could 'be there'. It works for anyone.
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