Do you know where your kid is? Check Google's maps

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
With an upgrade to its mobile maps, Google Inc. hopes to prove it can track people on the go as effectively as it searches for information on the Internet. The new software released Wednesday will enable people with mobile phones and other wireless devices to automatically share their whereabouts with family and friends. The feature, dubbed "Latitude," expands upon a tool introduced in 2007 to allow mobile phone users to check their own location on a Google map with the press of a button. "This adds a social flavor to Google maps and makes it more fun," said Steve Lee, a Google product manager. It could also raise privacy concerns, but Google is doing its best to avoid a backlash by requiring each user to manually turn on the tracking software and making it easy to turn off or limit access to the service.