Recently Implemented Ideas for Google Mobile: Latitude and Tasks

When we launched Product Ideas, we asked you to submit your best ideas for Google Mobile. Lana from New York, NY, said she wanted to "see my friends on maps on my phone," and over 1,200 of you agreed. We've had many other great ideas come from mobile enthusiasts across the world.

Your feedback is important as we work on new products and features, and with almost 3,000 ideas posted, we thought it about time to update you on some of the latest Google projects so that you can keep dreaming up and voting on new ideas that we haven't already implemented!

This week, we're happy to introduce two great new features, each for a different mobile product. Read on to find out more about sharing your location via Google Maps or keeping track of your to-do list with Gmail Tasks.

Product: Google Maps for mobile
New Feature: Latitude

Latitude is a new social feature that helps you locate your friends using a mobile device. By opting in to Latitude and having your friends share their location with you, you can see their whereabouts on Maps and contact them via SMS, Gmail, or Google Talk. You can even keep them updated by changing your status message. Check it out by going to http://www.google.com/latitude

Announcement: Official Google Blog

Related Ideas:

"i want to be able to see my friends on maps on my phone"
Lana, New York, NY

"Have my friends location on my map, with their GPS phone information."
rodleon, Santiago, Chile

"Social features that allow me to easily see where my friends are & other location based events (eg. the restaraunt promotion, or special club event.) It should include the ability to map them and quickly add them to your to-do/ calender for reminders"
TimBaileysBox, McLean, VA

"Use the iPhone Google Map to locate your friends, who happen to be carrying the iPhone."
GoogleMan

"A "Friend Finder" tied to google talk and GPS. Allows two people with mobile phones to send eachother positional updates so they can find each other in a busy store, theme park, etc."
Bryan, Marietta, GA

"Overhaul Google Maps to have voice turn directions with a 3D view. Also add social networking features like sharing directions and a friend locator (that can be turned on/off), and a recommend this place feature."
Map, Sacramento, CA

"GPS should provide what bluetooth tried and couldn't: a "find me" alert to locate people near you and that ACTUALLY want 2 be discovered and change instant messages. I'd love to chit chat while in queues or find by chance a friend who's at the mall!"
Ukyo, PE, Brazil

"Let google know my location constantly from a GPS device (accuracy determined by my paranoia) to let friends know if they are close to me *and* where I was at any point in the past."
JP, Nottingham, UK

"Provided an enhanced version of gmail contacts . The new contact list will indicate the real-time physical location of any contact who wants to share his/her location with friends."
B.Hu, Sunnyvale, CA

"a product that will ping my friends/contact list with my geo-location and get a response on their geo-location/connectivity status with present/past overlay on gEarth."
gink, Cape Town, South Africa

"A mobile app that seeks/finds using GPS and alerts you when others in your Google Friend Connect Community are close by. You would be able to turn off the feature when you don't want others in your Friend Connect Community to know you are around."
Googleguy, SoCal

Product: Gmail for mobile
New Feature: Tasks

Tasks lets you manage your to-do list while you're on the go. You can create lists of things you need to get done and check off tasks as they're completed.
If you have a supported device, just go to http://gmail.com/tasks in your phone's web browser to access Tasks. And mark that done.

Announcement: Google Mobile Blog

Related Ideas:

"Ability to view and edit gmail's tasks"
kally, minnesota

"Task list that I can update on a mobile device."
Grant, Cambridge, MA

"Ability to use the new gmail lab's TASKS feature."
Drooo, NY

Keep posting and voting on those ideas - they could be the seed of the next great feature. Your feedback is important to us and we can't wait to see what you come up with next!

by The Product Ideas Team