What is Google Latitude- a new Social networking tool and how to use it?

You can locate your friends in real time with Google Latitude

Google Latitude allows you to share your location with friends and view their locations on a map.

Latitude is completely opt-in, so you must enable it before you can start sharing location and can disable it at any time.

Google Latitude is a new feature for Google Maps on your mobile device. It’s also an iGoogle gadget on your computer. Once you’ve opted in to Latitude, you can see the approximate location of your friends and loved ones who have decided to share their location with you. So now you can do things like see if your spouse is stuck in traffic on the way home from work, notice that a buddy is in town for the weekend, or take comfort in knowing that a loved one’s flight landed safely, despite bad weather.

And with Latitude, not only can you see your friends’ locations on a map, but you can also be in touch directly via SMS, Google Talk, Gmail, or by updating your status message; you can even upload a new profile photo on the fly. It’s a fun way to feel close to the people you care about.

To use Google Latitude and accept location sharing requests, you must sign into Latitude using a Google Account. Google Accounts include Gmail usernames, Google Accounts you’ve created for other email addresses, and Google Apps accounts*.

There are two primary ways to use Latitude right now:

1. On your mobile phone: visit google.com/latitude from your phone’s mobile browser to download Google Maps for mobile with Latitude. We currently support most of the popular smartphone platforms: Android, Blackberry, Symbian S60, and Windows Mobile, and we are hoping to see Latitude on the iPhone soon. It will be available through Google Mobile App, and you’ll just need to download or update the app from the App store to find Latitude in the Apps tab.

2. On your computer: go to http://google.com/latitude from your browser and add the Latitude gadget to your iGoogle homepage. What’s neat is that if you’ve installed Google Gears or if you’re using Google Chrome, you can choose to automatically share your location from your laptop or desktop computer — no smartphone required!

With Latitude, you can also:

- Share your location and status updates with the friends you choose
- See on a map where your friends are and what they’re up to
- Quickly contact them with text message, instant message, or phone call
- Maintain complete control over how much or how little location info you want to share with whomever you choose.

Google Latitude is available in the following languages and countries.

The iGoogle gadget and version for Android-powered devices are available in the US only. We’re working to increase the availability of Latitude in more languages and countries.

Languages:
Bulgarian, Catalan, Chinese (Simplified and Traditional), Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Estonian, Filipino, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hindi, Hungarian, Indonesian, Italian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Serbian, Slovak, Slovenian, Spanish, Swedish, Tagalog, Thai, Turkish, Ukranian, and Vietnamese.

Countries:
Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, India, Italy, Liechtenstein, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Russian Federation, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, United Kingdom, and the United States.

Cost and data:

Google Latitude is free to download and use from Google, however regular data service costs do apply. Before you download and use either, we recommend that you contact your mobile service provider to find out more about your data plan and rates.