Google, Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG), the internet search giant that seems obsessed with allowing as much private information as possible be snapped up through its properties, may soon be tracking you. The Google Latitude product just launched this week will make it easy for mobile wireless users to let friends and family know where they are using the GPS technology inside most current mobile handsets.Although this technology already exists from several mobile software companies and handset vendors, Google's push is significant. With its omnipresence on almost every PC on the planet and an increasingly dominant presence on high-end handsets like iPhones and BlackBerries, the company's foray into mobile location-based technology is just another way to allow consumers to Googlefy their lives.
All things considered, it would be impossible for many of us to live our online lives without Google connected in some way. That's just what long-term holders of GOOG need to hear, right? The company's power is tremendous, and looking at Google the lens of just the stock price freefall of the last 12 months would be extremely short-sighted.
Of course, the company is making privacy control of Google Latitude very easy (to turn off, should you want), but with the amount of knowledge Google continues storing on the usage of its customers in all mediums and through all formats, its power becomes less benign with each passing year. What is does with this power beyond the extreme advertising micro-targeting partnerships it can supply to its partners, remains to be seen.
Deere up on Q4 earnings performance
Reid Hoffman: LinkedIn will go public (at some point)
Retailers can't wait for Black Friday, open Thursday
Add your comments