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Google Maps Will Now Let You Share Your Location With Friends and Family

posted by Fnord666 on Sunday March 26 2017, @04:02PM   Printer-friendly
from the I'm-over-here! dept.

Phoenix666 writes:

Google Maps has today announced a new feature to allow you to share your location with others. While that might seem creepy, it's not the first to add this type of functionality. Facebook tells you when a friend is nearby — it even lets you "wave" at them and gives you the option to send a message if they holler back. Foursquare's Swarm lets you check in wherever you are and both Lyft and Uber give you the option of seeing where your friend is if they share their ride location with you.

Now Google Maps will let you tell your friends where you are and give them directions to your location. It will also let you pick a special friend (like a family member, spouse or love interest, for example) to share your location with long-term.

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  • (Score: 2) by Capt. Obvious on Monday March 27 2017, @05:52PM

    by Capt. Obvious (6089) on Monday March 27 2017, @05:52PM (#484740)

    I don't let google track me since I use a dumbphone, so it makes no difference to me directly.

    So wrong. This move is targeted against you. It's seeking to normalize this kind of sharing, such that refusing to allow your location to be shared is an affront to whomever wants you to share it. Much like not having a FaceBook account is considered a lame excuse to not friend someone (for some reason).

    Google's run out of people willing to share their location freely, now it wants to leverage those to generate social pressure to go from 80% population coverage to 100%

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