Google is notorious for tracking people’s activities online. In fact, the search giant probably knows more about your own habits than you do yourself. Google stepped it recently up when they allowed users the ability to explore their location data with Latitude. But now that data will be available on Android devices too, along with a few more upgrades.
A recent Google Maps update (to version 5.3) has enabled a few new interesting bits of functionality for users of Google Latitude, a location service that enables users to check in and share their location data with friends. The first is the location history dashboard — it’s been available on the desktop for awhile now, but now it will make an appearance on Android devices.
The second new feature is the ability to check in at “home”:
Like Latitude and other check-ins, checking in at home is entirely opt-in. Your set “home” location is not searchable and only you can check in there. Just like any other check-in, you can choose with whom to share your home check-ins (along with your name and address info).
And the final new ability is to add your own aspects to reviews of businesses and places:
When you’re rating places on the go in Maps using Google Places with Hotpot, you could always quickly leave feedback on a specific aspect or characteristic of a place, such as the food or ambiance. Before, we’d automatically include aspects about places that were commonly mentioned in reviews. Now, you can add your own aspects for each place. So if you think a place has a beautiful view or great music, you can add it yourself and quickly share it with the world.
Forgetting where you’ve been is a thing of the past.
That’s really interesting. Without analysis we all usually just keep doing what we do. If we can actually see our time spent laid out as graphical information, we might make different decisions.
AgreeD.