This means trouble for startups in this space, as none really got significant traction.
In our opinion, mobile social networking space will eventually be won by the likes of Facebook which already know all your friends and can easily turn location features on at any time they want.

Loopt had some traction but not too significant as their applications could not update the status in the background (on iPhone). This is a problem for all LBSs. Latitude faces the same challenge, but people use Google Maps a lot more frequently than launching the Loopt app.

Highlighted TechCrunch comment by Original Sin I agree with:

I just installed it on my BB. It’s not apparent from the article, but this is actually just a feature of Google Maps 3.0. A pretty sweet feature, because I use Google maps all the time, but only a feature non-the-less. I believe this was one of the big gripes about Loopt et al, they were trying to make a service out what is merely a service of a greater location product. In this case, that product is GMaps.

I didn’t have a chance to play with Google Latitude as their app is not yet available for the iPhone. Something tells me they rushed to launch and there may be more news coming from other major players?

The fact that many developers use Google Maps within their site is also an interesting variable. I wonder how Google will make this data available outside their systems (with user privacy settings of course) via oAuth (similar to Yahoo’s FireEagle) It is only a matter of time before this location information is made available to other developers for free via something like Google Friend Connect.

There is a huge demand for companies to provide LBS infrastructure & frameworks – from players like DeCarta (powers Loopt) & Navteq / TeleAtlas (used by Google Maps)

Google is known to open up its services to developers (App Engine, Friend Connect, Maps). Google Maps API is the most used API on the web, which makes me think it’s only a matter of time when Google does similar with Latitude. Think of Twitter with Google Latitude!

Google has the power to create and transform existing industries. I think the area of LBS social networking had very few potential candidates to begin with – similar to the Data Portability segment. Facebook and Google are the names that come to mind. Both already have millions or users making use social graphs.

Relevant example: MapQuest vs. Google Maps – MapQuest is still successful – but Google def came out as the big winner.

There are many areas were Google did fail, and then acquired competitors or simply exited the space. But in this arena mindshare and user community are key!
To use the Google Latitude you will simply use: Maps 3.0 (that will come with your new smartphone) and your Google Account. For Loopt it’s a challenge:
- Market the brand
- User Downloads App
- Creates Account
- Launches app to update status

One thing this announcement will certainly do is speed up innovation from Facebook, Loopt etc which is a good thing.