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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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Google Maps Will Now Let You Share Your Location With Friends and Family
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How many QA engineers does it take to screw in a lightbulb?
3: 1 to screw it in and 2 to say "I told you so" when it doesn't work.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 26 2017, @04:33PM (13 children)
This is a solution ("we know your location at all times") looking for a (palatable) problem ("hey, know you can tell your friends where you are, ain't that something"). What exactly does this contribute to society except for "making us social"?
I've lived my life just perfectly fine without this, this is not needed.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 26 2017, @05:08PM (8 children)
Its not a solution. Its a pre-existing fact.
Since google already knows where you are, at least you should get some use out of it.
If you don't want to use the info that they already have on you, that's your choice.
I don't let google track me since I use a dumbphone, so it makes no difference to me directly. But I won't try to deny that there are positive uses to tracking information. I personally like the fact that google maps now shows how busy stores are based on the time of day, makes it easier for me to pick less busy times of day to go shopping. I don't even have to give up my info in order to benefit from everybody else giving up their info.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 26 2017, @05:17PM (2 children)
I don't even have to give up my info in order to benefit from everybody else giving up their info.
Hahahaha... Bwaaaahaaaahaaahaahahaha ... oh heh... oh wow... haven't laughed this hard in a while.
So you use google and think you're not giving up your info? Heh... you're funny, you are. Have you considered a career in stand up? I hear absurd humor is hot these days!
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 26 2017, @07:18PM (1 child)
I use a VPN to change my IP address multiple times per day.
I use ublock origin, noscript, clean links, request policy, self-destructing cookies and random agent spoofer.
I'm pretty confident google is not tracking me.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 27 2017, @09:36AM
I use ublock origin, noscript, clean links, request policy, self-destructing cookies and random agent spoofer.
If you still keep going to the same sites regularly like Soylentnews then you're like some guy who wears a different disguise everyday, claims he's from a different country (speaks with a different accent) but goes to the same Starbucks fairly regularly, gives a different name and pays only in unmarked bills. Yeah those Starbucks workers won't recognize your face, but I dunno if you really untrackable... ;)
(Score: 2) by VLM on Sunday March 26 2017, @09:52PM (1 child)
I'm convinced google is running a long research project combining google rewards (pay you pocket change for filling out questionnaires) with google location data.
Probably 90% of my google rewards questions are "Did you visit the following stores recently" and then what day did I visit and how much did the service suck. They know darn well from my tracking data where I've gone. So the true research project is likely some kind of honesty study. Is this dude gonna BS us or not?
I spend so little money on apps that I can pay for them with google rewards. Its interesting how little money I spend on apps. In 2008 or so I must have blown $200+ on games and stuff for my ipad-touch and I suspect I spent less than $5 in 2016 on my android phone apps. I wonder if all those app devs still think they're going to be billionaires. Probably.
(Score: 3, Informative) by Nerdfest on Sunday March 26 2017, @11:41PM
Their tracking is sometimes not perfect, so you were in the vicinity of a few stores and they ask which one, and then you do a survey. Sometimes I get a survey just because I drove past a place.
(Score: 1) by charon on Sunday March 26 2017, @10:41PM
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Monday March 27 2017, @02:00PM
Yes, Google already knows where you are, all the time. The purpose of this is to make you feel good about Google knowing everything there is to know about you.
A couple weeks ago I was on a cruise. I had an internet package. And GPS location worked great. Google Maps could show me a map that I'm in a middle of a blue ocean. I could zoom out and out and out and then see the Florida peninsula and other islands. Best of all, out in the ocean where all you can see is water all the way to the horizon, I would get Android notifications from Google Maps: Light traffic in your area.
When trying to solve a problem don't ask who suffers from the problem, ask who profits from the problem.
(Score: 2) by Capt. Obvious on Monday March 27 2017, @05:52PM
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%
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Snotnose on Sunday March 26 2017, @05:58PM (2 children)
It would have been good for mom, she liked to leave the house and wander. Dad would have to get in the car and drive around looking for her.
Problem is though, we gave her a cell phone about 10 years before she lost her mind. She'd turn it off and leave it in her purse, only turning it on when she wanted to call someone. Couldn't get her to understand that maybe we'd also like to call her as well.
/ gone 4 years in April
// miss you mom
When the dust settled America realized it was saved by a porn star.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 26 2017, @07:08PM (1 child)
what's with the leading slashes? Is that a thing the cool kids do these days?
Sorry about your mom...
(Score: 2) by Snotnose on Monday March 27 2017, @12:20AM
what's with the leading slashes?
Farkism, sorry
/ fark.com
When the dust settled America realized it was saved by a porn star.
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Monday March 27 2017, @05:33PM
> What exactly does this contribute to society except for "making us social"?
My other half is utterly incapable of giving clear directions, or receiving them, when she wants to meet friends. Many of her friends are the same. I can't fathom how they ever met, before they had cell phones to call each other once they believe they are somewhat in the general vicinity.
Drives me nuts when I don't know where I'm going, and nobody can seem to explain.
With this kind of app, hundreds of minutes of going around in circles, while following partial directions from someone who can't seem to understand most human buildings exist in 3D and have multiple sides, may be saved each day.
Of course, people who can't figure out cardinal points on a map may still need a bright red arrow pointing towards their friends. Score one for enhanced reality!
(Score: 2) by takyon on Sunday March 26 2017, @04:49PM (5 children)
Just text your fam.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 4, Insightful) by frojack on Sunday March 26 2017, @07:38PM (4 children)
The forgetfull child or tweenager, or wandering alzheimer geezer would be good candidates for this.
The actual teen would turn it off, the deceiving adult would deliberately leave the phone in the office. And when any bad guy grabs a kid the first thing they get rid of is the cell phone.
The actual use cases are vanishingly few.
It's just a ploy to con more people into leaving tracking on permanently.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 2) by Nerdfest on Sunday March 26 2017, @11:44PM (1 child)
My friends and I use it for a variety of purposes. My female-unit uses it to reduce worry when I'm out on the motorcycle and am late or something. My friends know whether I'm working at home or not, if they're in the area and feel like dropping by. I use it in a similar manner. I've used it to find a friend on a campus I didn't know the layout of as well. It really just saves a few texts or calls.
We all call it Google Stalker ... but we like it.
(Score: 1) by anubi on Monday March 27 2017, @07:31AM
I'd like to use it to find my phone!
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 27 2017, @09:47AM
It's just a ploy to con more people into leaving tracking on permanently.
Google already knows where most Android phones are.
Android phones with the default setting of "high accuracy" send location related data to Google (wifi, cell tower etc) and using that info Google tells the phone where it thinks the phone is.
This allows the location stuff to work even when GPS is unavailable (indoors etc).
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Monday March 27 2017, @02:09PM
Don't need GPS for a teenager. Just text them, ask where they are at. I'm at the library. Okay, please text me a picture of the library. Or bring up Google Maps, screenshot, and text me the screenshot.
As for wandering alzheimer geezer, if it ever comes to that, maybe I could wear 3D VR glasses. When asking repetitive questions "where am I?" imagine how useful Alexa or OK Google would be for that. When meeting people for the first time again, the augmented reality would do face recognition and label the faces of everyone I see. But I hope it never comes to that. Imagine doing multiple commits that all fix the same bug after it has been fixed.
When trying to solve a problem don't ask who suffers from the problem, ask who profits from the problem.
(Score: 2) by bradley13 on Sunday March 26 2017, @05:16PM
I can see using this, when meeting up with friends or family. If someone is delayed, as often happens, no need to message - because you can see where they are, and they know you can see it.
Haven't tried it yet, but definitely something useful. Also: the death knell for Scott Adams' "WhenHub", since this was the only useful feature that it offered. Never did understand the point of the rest of it.
Everyone is somebody else's weirdo.
(Score: 2) by Chromium_One on Sunday March 26 2017, @05:21PM (1 child)
Uh, google did have location sharing via nav/maps for a while. it was a bit of hunting to find the options to set it up, but I used it once for a cross-country road trip so others could track my progress... making that a bit easier than it was then could be useful to a few people, but constant on (by default) is probably not a good idea.
When you live in a sick society, everything you do is wrong.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 26 2017, @06:08PM
Yeah I used it for awhile too. Then they took it away. Guess it is back again.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by inertnet on Sunday March 26 2017, @06:14PM (1 child)
With this new toy, burglars don't have to read the obituaries anymore, to find out when nobody's home. They just need to find a friend, or a flaw.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by VLM on Sunday March 26 2017, @09:45PM
or a social media selfie.
In the "hollywood movie plot" genre of security scaremongering I'm waiting for the first crook to start reverse image searching people wandering around in public and then check out their facebook and other stuff to see whats worth stealing if anything.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 26 2017, @09:27PM
...with the community. [dni.gov]
(Score: 2) by Rivenaleem on Monday March 27 2017, @09:21AM (1 child)
There's a really useful app that does this already. It's called Glympse, and you can set yourself visible for up to 3 hours at a time and select who you want to see you. I use it with my brother regularly, as I'm often in his neighbourhood and he's in and out of the house. So if I'm swinging by I can see right away if he's there without disturbing whatever he's doing with a text or call.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 27 2017, @03:54PM
You've also been able to do this with G+ for years. Not sure what the big deal is.