Google Inc. just released its newest software, which is designed to help users of mobile phones but also other wireless devices share their location with family and friends. The new service is called Google Latitude and it will soon be available for users in 27 countries.

The whereabouts can easily be viewed on a Google map and in order to access the service, people must have a Google account. The contacts allowed to view a user’s location can be selected from Gmail and Picasa.

"What Google Latitude does is allow you to share that location with friends and family members, and likewise be able to see friends and family members' locations," explained Steve Lee, product manager for Google Latitude.

Knowing that such a feature could lead to a wide set of issues, the company’s officials explained in a blog post that "Fun aside, we recognize the sensitivity of location data, so we've built fine-grained privacy controls right into the application." According to the post, users will be able to determine who sees their location and also the choose the location that they see. Without such options, the software would certainly crash and burn in terms of popularity, as people value their privacy and the formula presented is the only one that could make such a tool work properly. The software is accessible either from a PC or a mobile device, presenting a smooth user friendly interface.

Latitude was designed to work on Research In Motion Ltd's Blackberry and also on devices running on Symbian S60 or Microsoft Corp's Windows Mobile and some T-1 Mobile phones running on Google's Android software. The company will soon release an update to make the software available on Apple’s iPhone, iTouch and several Sony Ericsson devices.

A similar service is being provided by privately-held company Loopt. Its services, which are also available for the iPhone, are offered by companies such as Verizon Wireless. Other competitors include companies like BrightKite, Tripit, Dopplr and MobilFriends. There is also a service offered by Yahoo, called Fire Eagle, which even though does not provide location information, it delivers a mechanism to centralize people's geographic privacy choices.

Google is looking to expand its online services, which up until recently have been focused on search and search advertising. The new directions include some aspects borrowed from the social networking Web pages, in the company’s attempt to deliver more personal services and step into a direct competition with players such as Facebook, Yahoo and Microsoft. Latitude is expected to add significant appeal to the company’s services and attract many more users either considering the feature useful or simply looking to have some fun online with their friends.

Over the years to come, such a service could lead to new marketing strategies, as the data on a certain person’s location could be used to send messages with special promotions in that area, and also could bring many new opportunities.