

Google Latitude will be retired - franze
https://support.google.com/gmm/answer/3001634?p=maps_android_latitude

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abrahamsen
They are moving location sharing from Maps to Google+. I have made a
"Location" circle in Google+ for people (mostly family) I want to be able to
know my location at all times. So far so good. It makes sense to move what is
basically a social feature to Google+.

I have two problems with this though. 1) the viewer currently only works on
Android. An iOS interface is promised, but no web viewer. 2) I can decide who
in my circles gets to see my location, but not whose locations I see. Meaning
the map view includes people whose location I don't care about.

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dorfsmay
Google is moving all their products to google plus.

This is sad, I disklike too many things about google plus, and don't like the
amalgamation, I might want to use one product at a given point, and another at
another point, but not wanting to be force to use one when I want to use the
other.

~~~
hahainternet
Google+ is essentially the 'account page' of Google products now. You don't
have to use the social stuff if you don't want to, but if you want to use
anything that does connect you to other people, that's where you go.

What sort of alternative are you proposing / can you give a more specific
example?

~~~
dorfsmay
> Google+ is essentially the 'account page' of Google products now

It makes for terrible interface. If all I want is IM or video with somebody, I
was happy with using pidgin from my desktop or an equivalent on Android. By
killing xmpp federation, Google forces people still using them for IM to login
in G+ and facing a wall of news, feed, forced feed (feed of what's hot),
etc...

If I want to check where my friend/spouse/kid is right now, I will now need to
log in on G+, which will make me show up as available for IM, face a wall of
updates, etc...

I get it they decided to compete with facebook, but I don't like it. There is
a silver lining though, people in the open source world were not addressing a
lot of those needs, because Google was doing so much better and for free,
hopefully we'll see more interesting OSS product coming out (or being re-
freshed) to fill the gaps.

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eric_the_read
This is a shame; my wife and I occasionally use this to figure out when the
other one will be home. It's much safer when she's driving for me to look her
up on Latitude than to call her all the time.

~~~
notatoad
the feature still exists( it's been rolled into plus now.

~~~
Narretz
... which is exactly the problem some / many ? people have with Google these
days. You are forced to use + for features that had been stand-alone.

~~~
pgrote
And Android. This is the second app I used extensively that will no longer be
supported on IOS.

~~~
abrahamsen
It will be added to iOS according to the linked page.

Not sure why they close Latitude before supporting their preferred alternative
on all platforms.

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temuze
I had the opportunity to talk to a board member of Google about Latitude once.

This person told me that Latitude was one of the clearest examples of how age
affects your perception on technology. The original pitch for Latitude was
"Say you're walking down the street and you look in Google Latitude and you
find that a buddy of yours is at a coffee shop a block away. This technology
allows you to stop by and say hi."

Immediately, the younger part of the board said "That's really cool!" The
older part of the board said "Ugh, I just want to enjoy my coffee in peace."

Maybe Google Latitude merely came at the wrong time. One day, maybe location
technology will be more appropriate with evolving social conventions.

~~~
Joe-Z
But is this really a age thing? I'm 24 and in the situation you described I'd
have reacted exactly like "the older part" of the board. Isn't it more
dependent on one being more extra- or more introvert? (which could also depend
on your mood at the moment...)

~~~
hoopism
I've used it at conferences and concerts. It's a great feature. But I am
ALWAYS conscious to turn it off immediately after. I absolute have no desire
to be found at a local coffee shop... by anyone.

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kcbanner
I really liked the dashboard
([https://maps.google.com/locationhistory/b/0/dashboard](https://maps.google.com/locationhistory/b/0/dashboard)).
I'm going to miss this.

~~~
yougotborked
From the FAQ

"If you use Location Reporting and have Location History enabled, your
location data will continue to be recorded to your Location History. You can
view and manage Location History data on the Location History dashboard."

So you still should be good

~~~
kcbanner
Oh! That's good news.

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hoopism
Yeesh... I used this with colleagues during Java One and it was a godsend for
meeting up. Don't like the placing off all the google eggs in one Google+
basket. As a user of google+ it may be beneficial... but for those of us who
liked to pick and choose functional components it's obnoxious (I recognize we
are fewer and thus less financially important to google... just griping).

~~~
hahainternet
How exactly is it obnoxious to have a unified interface to manage and organise
your friends?

It seems to me that having to manage some on G+ and then some in Latitude
would be more annoying and more obnoxious.

~~~
glesica
Because Google's location service might be the best, but other components
might not. What if someone doesn't want to use G+ to "organize [their]
friends", they just want a service that provides locations? The way Google did
things previously was much more modular, you could pick and choose among
products that each did basically one thing. Kind of Unix-y actually.

~~~
hahainternet
You're indicting G+ for not allowing modular friend organisation. That's the
whole point of 'circles'. Ok so you just want a service that provides
locations? If you have a Google account then you can use Plus, that service
provides locations, done.

You never have to see or hear or deal with any parts of G+ you don't want to.
You don't have to mix friend groups up or assign people to only one label etc.

~~~
hoopism
No question this is probably a better offering for the majority of users...
both G+ users and non... it just doesn't work with my flow. I like the analogy
of wanting a radio and being offered a car. I could sit in the car and not
touch anything else and just listen to the radio... but the fact is I now own
a car... even sitting idle a G+ account (or car) has implications.

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oceanician
Going to be harder for people to clone that than Reader :/

~~~
seanalex
Out of curiosity, why do you say that? I would expect it's as simple as
creating a polling/request call to the phone's GPS coordinates. The data can
be stored on an application's server and then displayed onto any mapping
choice for that person's "group".

I haven't dabbled much in mobile development, so I really couldn't say how
hard it overall would be.

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melling
Focus... Making fewer products better.

[http://www.forbes.com/sites/karstenstrauss/2012/07/05/google...](http://www.forbes.com/sites/karstenstrauss/2012/07/05/googles-
focus-a-nod-to-steve-jobs-advice/)

Google still has a lot more products than Apple but hopefully their focus will
mean a much better Android and Google Docs, for example. Google Docs hasn't
changed much in years.

~~~
frossie
Yeah but the focus has all been on Google+. Is Docs a + thing? No. I'd worry
if I were you.

~~~
Karunamon
Mail isn't a + thing. Mail isn't going anywhere.

~~~
abrahamsen
GMail is already integrated with Google+.

Google Docs will likely be integrated with Google+ soon, the document sharing
is currently based on GMail groups and contacts, I'd expect them to
supplement/replace those with Google+ circles and contacts.

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davidradcliffe
Anyone know of a good alternative?

~~~
dmead
writing down your gps coords every few hours and sending it to the nsa via
snail mail?

~~~
davidradcliffe
But what if I want it automated? :)

~~~
ihsw
Make an Android app that periodically makes HTTP requests whose body contains
the word 'bomb' and the GPS coordinates of a particular street intersection
near your phone. Bonus points for including Arabic lorem ipsum.

~~~
xentronium
Interesting. If whole population of HN did that, would it put a dent into NSA
processing power/capabilities?

~~~
ihsw
If there are any dents in their processing power/capabilities, they'll quickly
improve their capacity to accommodate it.

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Stately
According to the FAQ, the location history will not be retired, which is
really the only functionality of latitude that I use/have seen others use.

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silveira
A feature now available only in the NSA plan. :(

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wwhitman
How long until you don't get proper search results unless you log in to
Google+.

~~~
hahainternet
That's already the case. My personalised search results pages are often way
better than the generic ones. I added the Hacker News circle and a lot of you
link a lot of very interesting and valuable articles.

~~~
EarthLaunch
Do G+ circles really influence search? If so, that's super annoying, because
then I have to be careful what G+ circles I join. Personalized search is
already annoying enough.

~~~
hahainternet
You don't 'join' circles. You put people /in/ circles.

They influence search by increasing the relevance of links by people sharing
them or +1ing them. You can just turn them off on the results page it seems
but I have found it very beneficial.

Why is it already annoying? The only reasons I've heard have been
hypothetical.

~~~
EarthLaunch
Sorry, I didn't see your comment earlier.

Putting people 'in' and joining is functionally the same, that's what I meant.

The reason it annoys me is that I usually want my searches to be objective and
global, not influenced by my preferences. I suppose a solution might be if
their UI showed the influence clearly.

