Google launched Google Latitude today, along with a couple of helpful videos explaining the service (embedded below). Latitude is a new feature for Google Maps and an iGoogle Gadget that you can access via your computer, via a mobile application (though none is available yet for the iPhone), or a mobile web browser on your cellular phone. If you opt in to the service, Google tracks your location and your location is shared online with any friends who you have been given access to see where you are. You also can track any friends who have shared their location with you. 

However, besides simply offering your location on a map, the service would appear to have some features included that could make it Google's attempt to create a competitor for Twitter (see our feature: What is Twitter?). Google notes "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."

Also, several sites in the conversations below have raised the question about whether or not this is giving Google too much information and power. Google already knows the searching habits of anyone using their search engine, the email habits of anyone using Gmail, and multiple other habits that tie into the multitude of other products and services they offer. What's Google doing with all the location information they will have on hand from users who opt in to this service? True, if you have a mobile phone, you are trackable, especially if you have a GPS savvy device, so it's not like technology keeping track of our location is anything new or necessarily something to fear.

The concern is what happens when you take that valuable data and plug it into a site as powerful as Google that already has a large multitude of other bits of data to place that data next to. A lot of the strengths of this combination are also their major weaknesses and it's all a matter of how Google uses the data and the end user's perspective. If Google were to start sending unwanted SMS message advertisements for services nearby where you last indicated you were, that would be bad. If Google allowed you to opt in to a service that sent you discounts and coupons to business near to the last place where you indicated you were, that might just be something you want.

Here's the introductory video of Google Latitude from YouTube:

And here's Google's video offering Google Latitude privacy tips also via YouTube:

This story around the web: