[tony bag o donuts]

Who here uses latitude and what is the advantage over Foursquare (which I don't use) or Yelp Checkins?

[TJH132]

I use it as an extension of Google Maps. Really, what are check-ins good for anyway?

TJH

[EvilMonkey]

I only used Latitude for a couple of weeks. It has lots of settings for security and stuff, but I didn't have enough friends using it to make it meaningful to me.

One thing it did differently was with 4Sq and Yelp and Places you have to check in for anyone to know where you are. With Latitude, you could check in, but you could set it up to constantly broadcast your location, so you could view the map and see where all your friends are at (assuming they are broadcasting their location). This means it doesn't require a check-in or for you to guess they are still there to meet up with them. You can be downtown and see your friend is at a bar/restaurant down the street and just pop in cause you know that's where they are.

It was easy to turn this off and on though so you weren't always broadcasting your location, and you could set it up on a per-person basis so one person can see your exact location, and another can only see a general location (like what city you are in) and another person is completely blocked. Lots more info about it here:

I can see it being useful if you're a young person into the bar scene with lots of friends. You just turn the location broadcast on when you go out so your friends can meet up or you can meet up with your friends (or to avoid them), etc.

Or you could use it as a "tracking" app for your teenager or something (tell them to turn it on and don't turn it off or they're grounded). Or even if you're traveling somewhere and you just want your wife to be able to check on your progress to see if you've careened off a cliff or are stuck in traffic or got to your destincation safely kindof thing.

Mostly useless to me though. I don't go anywhere or have any friends.

[technomom]

I use it so that I can write overwrought blog articles about how Google tracks me without my knowledge even though the opt-in check box is as plain as the nose on my face.

:-)

[cynomyso]

We use it quite a bit in our family just to keep tabs on where people are. It's nice to pull up maps and see if somebody is still at work or on the way home. The kids love seeing on a map where people are. We all know that it's on and we know how to temporarily turn it off if we need to go off the grid for a while (this happened a lot during Christmas gift shopping).

[EvilMonkey]

^ Good point. I travel a lot for work and I bet my kid would be interested to see where I'm at since I go to a lot of different cities and he might be able to use it for a bit of education if he's curious about where I'm at.

Of course, I seem to be usually stuck in an airport somewhere. How exciting for him.

[jwoodsoniv]

If anyone would like to try it out, I will accept the sharing request.

[BSG75]

My wife and I use it just so we can see where each other are when travelling. We currently only have one car so it's a decent way of seeing how far away someone is if they are coming to get you. That's all I really use it for, though. I do checkins, but really only on facebook. No one else I know really uses Latitude :/

[NoSpin]

Just to see where the family is, all of us have android phones so it's pretty convenient.

[azjerry]

I tried it but it the app would stop at random times making it pretty worthless.

[Xopher]

One of the nice things with Latitude check-ins is that when you leave a location, it checks you out. With Four Square, it doesn't really have a way to tell people you have left a location unless you check in someplace else, or go off the grid.

[kamtsa]

I used it when I go to long bike ride so the wife can see where I am.

Also played recently with Glympse which has similar purpose.

As for checking into place, I don't care much about that part.

[DCooper323]

yeah, thats the last thing i want is my wife knowing where i am.... jk

she has a dumbphone.