New Latitude Leaderboard adds points to check-ins

 

When I checked in to work this morning as I usually do I was surprised to discover a new Leaderboard feature had been introduced with the latest update of Google Maps with Navigation for Android. With each Google Latitude check-in you make, you earn points which are tallied to give you a total score for the week. Your score is then compared to others in your Google+ circles. The person with the most points leads the leaderboard. It would seem most of my friends on Google+ don’t check in too often!

Early reporting on the ninja release are likening it to Foursquare, which I suppose in some ways it is (points and leaders). Of course Foursquare has a much more sophisticated incentive structure with promoted mayor status as well as vendor discounts. But I’m sure Google will plug this new Latitude Feature into other services. There are so many obvious services it could integrate with; Google Places, Google Shopping/Google Product Search, Google Shopper, Google Wallet, Google Catalogues and Google Offers.

As yet, Leaderboard has not be introduced to Google Latitude for iPhone or the pre-installed Maps application for iPhone or iPad.

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Google quietly launches Latitude Leaderboards, threatens Foursquare under its breath by Terrence O’Brien on engadget, 19 February 2012.