Google has been letting their developers develop and I am glad. They have come out with some great apps since 1998 when Google was founded. Stop and think about that for a minute. A company less than 20 years old and most everyone knows of it. Did you realize that in 2002, the American Dialect Society chose it as the most useful word of the year? In 2006 the Oxford English Dictionary as well as the Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary added it as a verb. "Have you googled that?" is an actual, correctly structured question. I think that is pretty significant. But enough of my fan-boy infatuation – back to the story.
They recently took an excellent app that most of us have used and added a feature that made it even better. That app is Google Maps which is available in every platform. It has apps for all of the smart phones made; Android, iPhone, Windows Phone even Blackberries have the app. Along with the apps any platform that can access the internet can use maps.google.com and get the features too.
The feature that has been added is called "Share Location" and has the "New" icon next to it, since it has just recently became available to the public. Clicking on this feature will give you information; however, to set it up you must have a mobile device. Go to this link (rd.dblclx.com/2q6A0pi) to see how to set it up on your device. Before you start you need to check several things. You both need a Gmail account, also they must be in your Google Contacts and of course, you must both have Google Maps installed on your device.
Click the Menu button in the map application then "Share Location" and click "Add People." Now, select how long you want to share your location with them. You get to choose from one hour, other increments and finally, "Until you turn this off." That last one is for my family. Once you have selected everyone you wish click, Share.
They will get a message that you want to share your location with them. If they accept they can then choose to share their location with you if they wish.
After everyone has accepted once they log into Google Maps on their device or computer, click the menu button, Location Sharing and see a map with those that are sharing their location with you. You can click on their name to get an update and a more localized map location on them.
You may think that is a little creepy. I told my friends about how my wife and I share our locations with each other and that is what they said. But we like it. That way she can check and see how close I am to home when coming in from work. No calls need to be made to find out when I will be there.
Think too if you have a teenager, or the other end of the spectrum, an older grandparent. If you want to keep up with their whereabouts this is an easy unobtrusive way to do so.
If you are going to visit someone who may live far away you can share your location with them during your trip by using the "Share trip progress" feature.
Creepy or not I think it is a great new feature from Google.