Last week Google announced that their Latitude location service would be a webapp that would utilize a new iPhone OS 3.0 geolocation feature that will be included in Mobile Safari. At that time, few news sites and blogs made even a peep about the new geolocation ability in Mobile Safari. In fact, I had a difficult time confirming that this was even a new feature to be included in the new version of Mobile Safari as there has been very little discussion about it. Now that everyone seems to be on the same page, let's quickly discuss what this means for you.
Google Latitude was supposed to be a native application for the iPhone, but Google decided against it and instead has turned its focus on creating a Latitude webapp. Google Latitude is already available for other platforms, but Google has held off on an iPhone version because they were waiting for Apple's iPhone OS 3.0 to drop, which includes support for geolocation in Mobile Safari. In iPhone OS 3.0, Mobile Safari will be able to access your coordinates and broadcast them to a service if you choose to allow it.
Of course Google Latitude isn't going to be the only service using this new feature. Imagine the possibilities now that Mobile Safari will be able to access your location. You will no longer have to enter zip codes when searching for local services because Mobile Safari will send that information for you. Social networking websites like Facebook and Twitter will be able to include your location with each message posted. Advertising companies will be able to serve specific ads to specific areas to reach their desired audiences.
Mobile Safari isn't the only browser that will be supporting this new feature either. Every other major web browser should eventually implement geolocation as well.
So, are you excited for geolocation in your browser, or would you rather not be broadcasting your every movement to the entire world?
[via ComputerWorld]
