Google turns stalking up a notch with location based Gmail signatures
Google is really big on location based stalking right now. First they throw Latitude at us – a friend tracking service designed to plot your location from a GPS-enabled phone on Google Maps for all your pals to see. And now another application tracking service has been unleashed. The location signature service is designed to give the geographical details of your whereabouts from your Gmail signature, with minimal effort on your behalf. So whether you’re in London, Tokyo, New York, or Timbuktu, your email signature will spread the word. It won’t just do it automatically – you will need to turn the service on or “append your location to the signature”.
It works by utilising your IP address to give a rough estimation of your location. This can be refined by using Google Gears, which uses your WiFi access point location to track your whereabouts.
While it sounds like a fantastic service for the digital nomad, it’s not quite polished enough to be taken advantage of by the business users. But I imagine Google is working all the hours god sends to iron out the problems and produce a finished product. It’s available now, albeit not the polished product, but it’s there if you fancy taking it for a test drive.
[via PC World]More tech news here
