‘No Matter Where You Go, There You Are’ / Buckaroo Banzai, 1984

Is there a tag in your future?

Location aware apps on mobile phones are becoming sophisticated enough to rival and even surpass dedicated GPS devices. Many come bundled with your ‘net connection and some apps are free (Google Earth). The Garmin GPS that’s been guiding me to Laurel, Md. via Dayton, Ohio is doomed to the dead hardware collection in my basement.

Of course not, we’re not animals…we won’t let anyone pierce a tag through our ear, we’ll just carry it around in our pocket or purse 😉
Yesterday, Silicon Valley’s local CBS affiliate ran a story about a woman getting her purse snatched.
Even though the thief hopped in a car, when the girl called her sister, she was able to tell police exactly where the criminal was since the phone was still sending location information via the free Google Latitude app and the phone’s internal GPS. The man was arrested and the girl’s purse returned.

Yahoo has gotten into the fray with FireEagle. A free web service that acts as a central clearinghouse for all your location enabled devices:

‘Fire Eagle is a site that stores information about your location. With your permission, other services and devices can either update that information or access it. By helping applications respond to your location, Fire Eagle is designed to make the world around you more interesting! Use your location to power friend-finders, games, local information services, blog badges and stuff like that…’

I know this all sounds too 1984 (and isn’t that an arcane reference), but get over it. This landslide won’t be stopped by curmudgeons or naysayers. The convergence of social networks and location services is at hand, so best enjoy the ride.

Here’s what Mr. Jobs has to say: