It was almost exactly two years ago that Google launched Latitude, their location-based service. Two years may not seem like a long time, but it’s “the equivalent of a decade in location services,” Latitude PM Ken Norton jokes. Most importantly, it was just before Foursquare launched to the world at SXSW in 2009. That changed the entire game, literally, as Google CEO Eric Schmidt likes to say. You see, it brought the idea of the “check-in” into play. And that ended up being the idea that launched a thousand location-based services. Today, finally, Google is getting on board with that idea.

Yes, the check-in is coming to Latitude — finally.

Latitude at its core has always been about sharing your best available location with people on a continuous basis. In other words, it was a service that relied on location updates running constantly in the background. “It has been good for seeing where you are, but not seeing where you ARE,” is now Norton puts it. In other words, you could see that a friend was at a place on a map, but not that they were at a Starbucks. To find that out for sure, you’d still have to send them a text.

But now Latitude will have a check-in feature that will use Google Places’ place database. “Users have been asking for this for a while, but we realized we could do this differently. Check-ins are great, but let’s combine them with continuous location,” Norton says.

And so there will be three key features of the new product. First, there will be check-in notifications. These will pop up on your phone when you go somewhere and forget to check-in (if you turn them on, of course). Because your location is still being constantly updated in the background, when you stop at a certain location for long enough, Google can tell that you’re at a particular place and can alert you to check-in there. “This is a little more convenient than pulling out the app to hunt and search for your location each time,” Norton says.

Second, Latitude is doing automatic check-ins. Again, if you opt-in to this, Latitude will be able to register the places you go to often and will know to automatically tell your friends you’re there without you having to do anything. Norton notes that this is useful for work, which perhaps is the place you’re at most often, but get sick of manually checking-in at all the time.

Third, Latitude will have a check-out feature as well. While subtle, this is very useful. Again, thanks to the background location element, Google can tell if you’ve left a place that you’ve checked-in and will effectively “check you out” of that location so friends don’t show up looking for you after you’ve left.

The downside, sadly, is that this check-in feature will be available only on Android devices at first. While Norton says they’re working as quickly as they can to bring it to their iPhone app, since that app is so new, they’re still not as quick when it comes to updates yet. So instead, this will be a part of Google Maps 5.1 for Android starting today.

Norton notes that Latitude has 10 million active users now — making it one of the largest (if not the largest) location-based service out there. He’s quick to note that they measure this by monthly active users, not overall registration. That number will surprise a lot of people as Latitude doesn’t get anywhere near the hype that Foursquare, Gowalla, and others get. Clearly, Google hopes that will change with the check-in feature. It certainly will bring more utility to the app for many of those users.

Of course, the location game is also much different than it was two years ago. Not only has Foursquare caught on with a lot of mainstream media, but Facebook is now in the space with Places.

In terms of competing places databases, Norton jokes that “we help by not creating yet another one.” Again, Latitude will use Google Places to populate the venues that users can check-in to. He also notes that they have a Places API and that others are welcome to use elements of it for their own location services. And he says that going forward, the Latitude team is open to exploring any features users want, such as the ability to update the place database manually.

In terms of the all-important deals, Norton says that they have nothing to announce at this time. Deals have proven to be a key part of Foursquare and will be a key part of Facebook Places. They’re also a part of Google Places, so you have to imagine that eventually, Latitude will get these too.

Now the most important question: what about the mayor? Norton says that there are “loyalty levels” built in. The three he mentions are “Regular”, “Guru”, and “VIP”. Of those, Guru is the big one, then VIP, then regular. But how you obtain each title will vary from place to place — since people visit coffee shops more than the dentist, for example. And there can be multiple recipients of each distinction at each location, he says.

Right now, Latitude will allow you to share your check-ins in two ways: to your friends within Latitude, and with the ability to post to your public Google Profile. That’s right, you can’t send your location to Twitter or Facebook — at least not yet. Norton says they’re considering other services to send your location information to. But it’s a bit trick since Latitude has a history of being a more contained network with tighter social controls.

He does think the check-in may completely change the way people use Latitude, as they could be more open to accepting more friends now, but only sharing their city-level location with them and/or their explicit check-ins. They could then allow true friends to see their constantly updating location, he says.

It will be interesting to see how this changes Latitude. The continuous location plus check-ins is a smart play (albeit one Loopt has been doing for some time), but it brings up both potentially privacy and battery life issues. In terms of the latter, Norton says his team has spent a lot of time worry about battery issues over the past two years. And they’ve gotten so good, he says, that the battery hit for background location is now “negligible”. That’s good news.

Now bring the check-in to the iPhone, please.

It should be pretty clear by now that Google is taking location very seriously. The original launch of Latitude in early 2009 was just a first step. Now they have robust APIs, Google Places, and key executive Marissa Mayer is now in charge of these and various related projects. And earlier today they finally rolled out a Latitude iPhone app. But if a fairly small tweak to Chrome is any indication, Google means to go deeper still.

More specifically, Chromium, the open source browser on which Chrome is based, just recently received a new experimental feature hidden behind a flag (meaning you have to explicitly enable it). In the latest builds of Chromium version 10, you’ll see an option called “Experimental location features”. Apparently, when switched on, this allows the browser to run “experimental extensions to the geolocation feature.”

The description clarifies it a bit more: “Includes using operating system location APIs (where available), and sending additional local network configuration data to the Google location service to provide higher accuracy positioning.” Obviously, that last bit is particularly interesting. Clearly, Google hopes to improve location accuracy within the browser — a problem since most of it is drawn from WiFi triangulation data rather than GPS (which most computers don’t have). But it would seem that they also mean to build out their own location database and services with the data they collect from this feature in Chrome.

There’s currently a war brewing underneath the location apps that consumers see. It involves location and place databases and services. It used to be that everyone, including the big boys, went to companies like Skyhook Wireless and Localeze for location data and functionality. But increasingly, the tech superpowers like Apple, Google, and Facebook are building out their own. Why? Because they all want to own the local space.

But Google has perhaps the most interesting positioning here. After all, their millions of Android phones come with location built into their Maps product. Apple has this too with the iPhone, but remember that it’s Google Maps that’s also included on the iPhone (though it is said that Apple builds the app on their own, simply using Google’s data). And now Google is starting to really push their location services like Latitude and the new Hot Pot. And just in case you don’t think anyone is actually using Latitude, Google made it clear today that it has 9 million active users — that’s nearly double Foursquare’s total user base.

Of course, there are still questions as to just how many people are actually using Latitude, versus how many enable it via Maps on Android devices and don’t even really realize it. But it almost doesn’t matter, Google is still getting that data. That’s why it’s so vital that they control all of these various entry points. And soon, it looks like Chrome will be another one. And that’s key just in case the Chrome notebooks take off. Location services will have successfully made the jump from smartphones to notebooks.

And all of this is key to what Mayer talked about on stage at LeWeb last week: the move towards “contextual discovery“. Getting results without searching.

Today at LeWeb ’10 in Paris, France, our own Michael Arrington took the stage to talk with Google’s Marissa Mayer. Mayer recently took a new job within Google. Technically, she’s now the head of consumer products for the company. So what’s she working on?

Well, as we’ve all heard, location is a big part of it. But she’s also thinking about a bigger picture item that Google is still working on. This is what Google is calling “contextual discovery”. This means being able to look at either a person’s browsing profile or their location profile and serving up interesting data to them without them searching for anything. Yes, it’s Google results without the search.

“The idea is to push information to people,” Mayer said. She noted that on mobile devices this is particularly interesting because location can provide context. One example she gave was a menu when you’re in a particular restaurant. It would be great to show up and see that on your device — maybe with a bit of social flavor based on what your friends like, she added.

Mayer said they’re still thinking about how the UI for all of this should look, but they have some ideas. It may be a panel in the browser. But on mobile devices it would be different. She said they they have a couple of things they’re currently experimenting with and that we should expect something to come from them in the next year or so.

“We’re trying to build a virtual mirror of the world at all times,” Mayer said.

Below, find my live notes of the entire discussion (paraphrased):

MA: So, you now have a new job

MM: We’re calling it consumer products broadly. Local Search, Maps, Earth, Latitude, and all the local products. But it’s also contextual discovery. Take a users location as a piece of context for finding what they want without them actually searching for anything. We have a couple of things we’re experimenting with, but it will be out in the next year.

MA: Why give up search and do something different?

MM: Well I had done it for about 11 years. We’re the number 1 site and number 1 search engine. It was time to try something new. Local is all very related to search, so my knowledge transfers. But now I have engineering on my team. I have 800 – 1000 people working under me. If you include all the various people around the world it’s more like 2,000. “We’re trying to build a virtual mirror of the world at all times.”

MA: Let’s talk more about contextual discovery.

MM: The idea is to push information to people. It’s location in context. Inside the browser and a toolbar, can we look at where people have been going on the web — then we deliver it. But it’s a big UI challenge. In the browser it might be a panel on the right or bottom that complements your browsing. On the mobile phone, it’s where you are in the physical world. We can figure out where the next most useful information is. In a restaurant maybe it’s a menu. Or maybe it’s a social menu. It’s about explicit and implicit location.

MA: Latitude is one of your products. Can we just agree that it’s pretty terrible?

MM: (Laughs) I use it.

MA: But you are an avid Foursquare user.

MM: I am. But Latitude is useful for a smaller group of people. Only a handful of people you’ll want to know where you are at all times. There will be new layers coming on top of it. It’s more useful when more people are on it. And implicit and explicit — yes, the check-in. Maybe that’s in Latitude or maybe it’s in Maps.

MA: You launched Latitude on the iPhone right? We saw it.

MM: It’s close. We’re interested in it. (Laughs)

MA: There are three big acquisitions that Google has been involved in in the past 12 months. Yelp, Twitter, and Groupon. You don’t have to confirm. But why has Google failed to get these companies? Is all the luster gone?

MM: I can’t comment on any instance. But every deal is different. The larger the company, the more complicated the deal is. Slide is an autonomous inside of Google, for example.

MA: What is HotPot — a Yelp killer?

MM: No, it’s a recommendation engine. It’s built into Maps for mobile and Places. You can go to restaurants and rate them quickly. And you make connections with friends or other users like you. We try to produce good recommendations for you. It’s collaborative filtering plus the social component.

MA: Do you remember Buzz? I didn’t mean it like that.

MM: I don’t think Buzz was really similar, this is the new way to rate things for Local.

MA: So Google Social, +1, can you confirm that?

MM: It’s clear that social is important to Google. We need to work on it.

MA: But if you mess up again… Do you just turn into Microsoft while you watch Facebook rise?

MM: It’s clear that it’s really important. We really want to get it right this time. That said, we’re really patient. There’s search, mobile, local, and social. We’ve gotten three right. We’re working on the fourth one.

MA: How does Twitter play into the ecosystem.

MM: It’s an amazing distribution mechanism. And a way to consume information. But it’s more about blasting it out. We use it for HotPot. Foursquare is great signal too — I just checked-in here. I just checked-in there. Twitter is a great product. I use it a lot.

MA: Will acquisitions happen in your group in the next 6 months?

MM: Absolutely. We’re on track for almost an acquisition a week. We do 1, 2, or 3 of those big ones a year. AdMob, ITA, those types of deals are always in the works.

—— Dave Burk, and engineering takes the stage Gingerbread in hand on the Nexus S. ——–

DB: We’ve been working on this device with Samsung for about 12 months. It’s a pure Google experience device. It’s the very best of Google and Android.

MM: One of the key parts is Google Maps for Mobile. Now it’s Google Maps for Mobile 5.0. We have 100 million using Maps for Mobile now.

DB: I can use a multi-touch gesture to get a 3D view.

MM: This is vector maps. So we can smoothly pan and zoom.

MA: What I like about it are the new wallpapers. You’re only selling this is U.S. or UK right? Anyway to get one elsewhere?

DB: It’s only on pre-order in a couple countries. We’ll see after Christmas.

MA: What is you ran Yahoo?

MM: I think Carol has done a lot of smart things. The Bing search deal was smart — we wish it was us. But they’re doing a lot of things to flatten things out and stay relevant.

MA: What about more Google investments? You did Zynga. What about Twitter.

MM: Well gaming makes sense. But other things we’ll have to see.

MA: You’re on the secret committee right?

MM: Yes, The OC. That’s what we call it — the operating committee. It’s about a dozen people who have done a lot with the company. We help operate the company. I’m really proud to be a part of that.

MA: You talk about killing products, investments, right?

MM: Yeah, it’s true. All that stuff.

MA: Anything else?

MM: We’ve had a really exciting week. Nexus S. Gingerbread. Chrome OS. 120 million active users of Google Chrome. And the Chrome Web Store.

MA: Isn’t that a fancy name for extensions?

MM: Sort of, but they’re hosted on the network vs. on the client side. And they’re all HTML5.

MA: What about Chrome OS vs. Android?

MM: I think we haven’t really decided. We see a lot of promise in Chrome OS. We’re looking at it to be on notebooks right now. It’s not even netbooks anymore. And Android is going to tablets right now. But the form factor for either could work for the other. Like Google TV is built on top of Android. And the developer community is helping on both.

MA: What about downloading Chrome OS to my MacBook?

MM: Hard to say. I can’t speculate. Possibly. The big thing is that Chrome OS is super-fast. You open the laptop and it’s ready. I have one waiting for me when I get back.

At Google I/O in May, the search giant indicated that they were about to take their commitment to location to the next level. Sure, Latitude had been around for a while, but everyone knew that Google could do more in the space. The announcement of some new location APIs seemed to a big part of the solution. And now comes the fun part.

Today on their Geo blog, Google is announcing that they’re beginning to open the Places API for business. The first developers getting access? Those working on check-in services.

Here’s what Google has to say:

We are going to focus initially on check-in applications. These are the applications that we feel the API currently caters to well, and we are excited to work with developers building these applications to understand their requirements, and ensure that we are offering them the best possible experience.

So does this mean the end of Foursquare, Gowalla, Loopt, and all the rest? Well, no. All this means is that it should be a lot easier for startups to build the next versions of those types of services. Of course, if you listen to Foursquare talk about it, they’ll say they’re already moving on to bigger and better things beyond simply the check-in.

Google is pointing those who wish to get access to this API to fill out this application form found here. Again, the focus at first will be on check-in apps, but they promise to expand the API to other uses once they feel it is up to speed.

They are also accepting check-in apps for this API built in conjunction with the Buzz API as well.

Just prior to I/O, Latitude manager Steve Lee hinted that some sort of check-in functionality was likely in the future for the service. At I/O, the Latitude API made it possible for others to build such functionality. But this new Places API will allow for location services built on top of Google’s data but independent of Latitude.

Loopt was one of the first location-based services to get a lot of hype — even getting on stage at the Apple event first talking about the App Store way back when. But as we’ve noted numerous times, they started out at a disadvantage because the iPhone didn’t allow third-party apps to run in the background. And that was Loopt’s model, continuous location updates. But with iOS 4, the iPhone does finally allow for that functionality — and specially for background location. And Loopt is benefiting from it.

Daily sessions are up 60% from just prior to iOS 4 being release, founder Sam Altman tells us. Both background location and the proximity alerts are pushing this growth — as well as the latest version of the app, 3.0, in general. Altman says that daily active users is in the hundreds of thousands.

Altman also credits Loopt’s usage surge to being featured in markets where Android phones are quickly gaining popularity. And the biggest surge is thanks to the fact that Loopt is now preloaded on almost all MetroPCS phones. “We’re finally seeing real Android growth,” Altman says.

Loopt pivoted last year to allow for check-ins when it was clear that the model was taking off. But the latest version marries the two ideas. The latest iPhone version allows you to check-in at a venue and keep your live location active for up to 24 hours so that friends can see as you move on the Loopt map. For some people that’s extremely creepy. For others, it’s the future of location.

You can find Loopt 3.0 in the App Store here as a free download. You can also search the Android Market for it.

Dell is focusing on the business user with the new Latitude models, including improved deployment time, stability, and global support. The new models also include a battery with a three year warranty, Windows 7, and WiMax support.

Let’s break it down; the E5410 supports everything from the Intel P4500 up to the i7 620m. You’ll be looking at a 14.1 inch screen, with support for up to 8GB of RAM. Prices change based on configuration, but the base unit has an MSRP of $759.

The E5510 is essentially the same machine, except with a 15 inch screen. MSRP starts at $789, and both machines are available now.

Google appears to be getting a tad paranoid about its own privacy policies on the heels of the whole Google Buzz debacle.

The company apparently sent out an e-mail to some Latitude users this morning, warning them that the service might be giving away their location – which is kind of the whole point of the app – and asking them to check their settings.

Update: commenters tell us Google started sending out said e-mails a while ago, not today.

As a reminder, Google Latitude is a location-aware application that was specifically designed to let mobile phone users broadcast their location to certain people.

This is the e-mail, forwarded to us by Andrés Catalán:

———- Forwarded message ———-
From:
Date: Feb 18, 2010 3:22 AM
Subject: You are using Google Latitude and reporting your location
To:

Hi,

To protect your privacy we would like you to know that Google Latitude is running on your Android-powered device and reporting your location.

If you didn’t enable this or want to stop reporting your location please open the Maps app on your device. Go to ‘Menu’ > ‘Latitude’ > ‘Privacy’ and change your privacy settings.

Thanks,

Google Latitude Team

(c) 2009 Google Inc., 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043, USA. Terms of Service | Privacy Policy

Google Mobile Maps is getting a new feature tonight called Google Latitude. It will allow you to broadcast your location to select friends, family, and colleagues based on the coordinates of your cell phone (via GPS or otherwise). If you have the GPS feature enabled in Google Maps on your mobile phone, you are probably familiar with the reassuring, pulsating blue dot on the map that represents you wherever you go. Google Latttude is now essentially letting you share that blue dot with anyone you like.

But Google Latitude is a full mobile application in and of itself. (Download it from your mobile browser at google.com/latitude). You can keep track of where everyone is at any given time, and from within the app you can call, email, or IM them. Everyone you have opted to follow shows up as a picture icon on a map or in a list view. The list view is like a location-based Twitter.

Don’t feel like being tracked? Just hide yourself from select “friends,” or manually enter a false location as your current one. You can control how much privacy you want on a very granular, contact-by-contact level.

Latitude works out of the gate in 27 countries on Blackberries, Windows Mobile, and Nokia S60s. Android will begin rolling out over the next week, and an iPhone app is coming soon. In the U.S., there is also an iGoogle gadget that shows everyone’s location and messages.

In a sense, Latitude is a private version of Yahoo’s Fire Eagle geo-location service. There is no way to broadcast your location to the public at large, only to your own Gmail contacts. (It does not yet work with Google Friend Connect). Obviously, there would be privacy concerns with publicly sharing your location at all times, but it is already happening and public geo-broadcasting will only become more popular over time.

Here are Hans and Roy from Dell to tell you about the new multitouch firmware upgrade for the Latitude XT tablet PC. Hey relax, Roy, you’re doing fine, buddy. Just slow down a bit and watch those erratic hand motions there. Picture the entire internet naked or something. Hans, you’re doing a great job, pal.

You can get the update on Dell’s site here – it’s about 15MB or so. Once installed, multitouch functionality will work with most of your everyday programs.

Latitude XT Software Update is Here [Dell Support Site]

Whether you like it or not, today is Santa Rosa Day, where all the king’s horses and all the king’s men pimp their new laptops that have Intel’s latest chipset. Dell is no exception and two of its business-centric laptops, the Latitude D830 and D630, stand on guard for thee. Since they’re intended for business customers they have (as build-to-order options, natch) a bunch of security features to keep your company’s secrets under lock and key, including fingerprint reader and encrypted hard drives. The D830, which we’ve taken great pains to picture right here, has a 15.4-inch screen, so I wouldn’t exactly call it super-portable.

And yes, all of Santa Rosa’s bells and whistles are here: new Core 2 Duo processors with a faster front side bus, better integrated graphics (though Dell lets you build systems with proper GPUs) and integrated Draft N Wi-Fi. Add flexible operating system options ranging from FreeDOS to Windows Vista and the new Latitudes are sure to do Santa Claus proud.

Dell’s Latitude Business Line Gets Santa Rosa Treatment [Computer Shopper]

Seems Dell is the latest company to jump on the rugged-notebook bandwagon. Dell’s D620 ATG (All-Terrain Grade) laptop is a response to Panasonic’s infamous line of ToughBook computers that can take pretty much anything thrown at them (literally). The base model starts at $2500 and comes with a 14-inch widescreen display, up to 4GB of RAM, Core 2 Duo CPUs, port covers, shock-mounted hard disks, and a spill proof keyboard. Those who are outdoorsmen/clumsy should immediately surf over to Dell.com to order one.

Dell ships ruggedized Latitude portable [Electronista]