Google Latitude coming to iPhone...in a web browser

Chauncey Dupree
|
May 27, 2009
|
Share

Google Latitude is an application that has been promised for the iPhone for awhile now. It allows you to broadcast your GPS location and at the same time allows you to follow the locations of your friends. Obviously, there is both concern for abuse as well as excitement over this ability.  Google has released versions for the Blackberry, Symbian, Windows Mobile and, of course, Android. 

For whatever reason (App Store regulations?), Google has decided to skip over the iPhone as an native app and release Latitude as a Web App on iPhone 3.0.  With HTML 5 and Apple allowing Safari to access the GPS location in 3.0, apparantly it makes more sense to build a web app.  We aren't quite sold on that yet but we are willing to try (Anyone got a URL for us?). 

This idea would be even better if Safari could continue accessing the GPS information in the background, for this to work.  More picts below.

Photos via Techcrunch

Comments (6)

JohnnyK | May 27, 2009 - 1:13pm

This is one of those features that doesn't seem like it will ever be worth while on the iPhone without background tasks. At least, not for letting others find you. For finding others, it will still be okay as long as they don't also have an iPhone. Personally, I really hope Apple allows the 'Find my iPhone' feature to be shared with other friends/family. However, I doubt that will be the case.

9to5Mac Noob (not verified) | May 27, 2009 - 1:32pm

google it(!)
m.google.com/latitude
nb i've been checking this page for a few months now, but nothing new of late

admin | May 27, 2009 - 2:51pm

The URL of the web app

9to5Mac Noob (not verified) | May 27, 2009 - 3:11pm

Note the *m.* before the google.

aupatel (not verified) | May 27, 2009 - 4:09pm

Actually Safari does run in the background in 3.0. I stumbled upon this when i was listening to a mp3 file through safari on the iPhone. After listening for a while, I decided to get out of it, therefore I hit the home button. However, the music kept on playing in the background as I was accessing other apps.

So I'm pretty sure if the web app of Latitude came out, it would be able to work in the background.

Lets hope it works!

Free iPhone (not verified) | May 27, 2009 - 11:24pm

This app will be amazing fun, finding out where your friends are etc but what is the practical use of it?
If your friend is lost then you can see where they are but to give them any directions you will still need to phone them, so why not just do that in the first place?
Get a Free iPhone 3G at http://www.gimmeitfree.co.uk