Google Inc. made public its plans to launch Latitude, software that enables users of mobile phones to share their location with the contacts of their choice. The company hopes Latitude will be helpful to users and will make it easier for them to find each other while out and about and to know the whereabouts of their loved ones when they need it.

Google plans to launch Latitude, basically an upgrade to Google Maps, on Wednesday. The feature is an expansion of a tool Google launched in 2007 which allowed mobile phone users to check their own location in a Google map. Practically, Google wants to prove to the world and to itself that it can search and locate people just as efficient as it tracks information on the Internet.

Google product manager for Google Latitude, Steve Lee, said the new upgrade will add “a social flavor to Google maps and makes it more fun."

The privacy issue will smoothly be avoided says Google. Each user will manually turn on or off the tracking software and will decide if anyone has access to his whereabouts and if so, who does. However, Google will surely be the very best friend of every mobile phone user no mater if one does turn the software off.

Users can decide the depth degree of the information they make available to other contacts. For example, one can let a close contact see in which city he is at a precise moment or even the precise location in that city.

Google Inc. also said it will not retain information about the movements of the mobile phone users who use Google Latitude. Only the last location of the contact will be stored in the company’s database, said Mr. Lee.

Lee also said the most common scenario of Latitude use is “a symmetrical arrangement” where both users are sharing with each other the locations. A user’s location is marked by a personal picture on Google's map.

The Google software relies on cell phone towers, global positioning systems or a Wi-Fi connection to establish a contact’s location in the United States and 26 other countries.

The Google Latitude will be available on Research In Motion Ltd.'s Blackberry, mobile phones running on Symbian software or on Microsoft Corp.'s Windows Mobile. The T-1 Mobile phones running on Google's Android software will also be compatible and the iPhone and iTouch as well.

Although another company, Loopt Inc., has been offering the same kind of services throughout the past three years, Google Inc. doesn’t just play catch up. This move gets Google ahead in the social networking game. Although location-based social networking has still to catch the eye of the masses, it surely has tremendous potential.