Social_loco_infographic_vSCREEN.png (PNG Image, 1726x2592 pixels) - Scaled (24%) Checking In with Facebook Places. Universal Check-In Service Check.In Threatens To Turn Foursquare. South by SouthWest (SXSW) Vicarious.ly Visualization.
Foursquare. Facebook Confirms Its Location Product. The Unified Database Of Places Is Coming Soon. Or Maybe Never. Last month, Erick wrote a post calling for the creation of an open database of places. As location-based services continue to gain popularity, each of them is building up these massive databases of places themselves, and this is going to become an issue as services like Twitter and potentially Facebook attempt to federate all this data. And Erick is hardly alone in thinking about this — nearly all the companies involved in the space talk about such an idea enthusiastically, and regularly.
Yet no one seems to be doing much about it just yet. Back in March, I moderated a panel featuring key members of Foursquare, Gowalla, Loopt, Twitter, and Plancast. When I raised the idea of a unified place database, all seemed to be in agreement that it would be a good thing. Even when I brought up that their own place databases were a way to keep their users around, everyone seemed to think there were better ways to do that, and that the benefits of a unified place database would outweigh any costs. Gloe. Google Latitude now tracks your location history | News | TechRa.
In what initially sounds like some nightmarish 'big brother' style innovation, Google has launched Location History for Google Latitude so you can track where you and your Latitude friends have been. Of course, you can change your settings on your phone so that Google (and your friends) don't necessarily have the option to track your movements, if you so want to. Forgot where you've been? However, if you are a particularly forgetful person then Location History could well come in handy, should you want to return to a place that you vaguely remember visiting recently, but aren't sure how to get to.
Hit Google Latitude Location History and 'bang! ' The new Location History Dashboard will also provide additional information on the places that you have been, linking you to a range of relevant sites. You can also delete your entire location history at any time you like, if you don't want unsuspecting friends or spouses to know everything about what you are doing! Via Fastcompany.com.