Google Latitude Location History

Google Latitude Location History

When I was a little kid, I always imagined that, after we die, we’d have the opportunity to visit a pavilion in heaven that traced a line through all our travels on earth. Google Latitude’s Location History can now do this, for one-month periods. It tracks your phone’s GPS signal along with stops along the way. And while this may be a little invasive from a Big Brother standpoint, it’s also quite helpful to notify friends and family of your impending arrival and track a missing or stolen cell phone to it’s current location.

Above, you can see a recent road trip to Michigan with a brief overnight stop in Ohio. The frequency of the dot seems fairly random but factors in speed, signal strength and delays. My five-hour traffic jam outside the Poconos is clearly present by a cluster of rather impatient looking dots. You can also see a kopse of dots denoting my meandering through Kalamazoo, my final destination. Keep in mind this journey retraces into itself for both legs of the trip. In this view, it’s difficult to tell which dot is for the westward vs. the eastward leg. Maybe the next version of Google Latitude Location History will overlay time.

Travel Map

TripAdvisor Travel Map

As I wait in jittery, excited anticipation of my big trip back to the old country to see the rustic villa where my grandfather was born in 1909, I have been asking a number of friends about their recommended off-the-beaten-path must-dos in Italy.

I was initially quite proud of this until I visited some of the travel maps of friends, which look like glitteringly decadent Christmas trees. My lowly map, if you notice, has no dots west of the Mississippi—which will change for Todd’s wedding this July—and only sparse locations in Eastern Europe. I’ve been to less than half of the world’s continents and have predominantly traded in dollars, pounds and euros (and pre-euro currencies). And while I’m struggling to become less sedentary, I’m merely posting this pitiful map to show to the friends who’ve asked about my previous travel experiences.

That said, if you find yourself in any of the following locations this June, let’s get a Prosecco and Peroni:

– Rome
– Naples
– Siena
– Florence
– Chianti
– Anywhere in Tuscany
– Anywhere on the Amalfi Coast
– Anywhere on the Ligurian Sea

And, if you’ve been there before, let me know of some things you recommend!