Google’s Impressive 8 Year Old Idea

Google has built a $580 billion empire by keeping its innovation engine running ahead of the competition. But on Wednesday the company pulled off an impressive, and curious, feat: it wowed the public with an eight year old idea.

Google unveiled a new set of features for its popular Maps app that lets users share their locations with friends and contacts in real time. Thanks to this update, Google Maps users will now be able to quickly let friends know if they’re running late to a meeting or stuck in traffic.

It’s a compelling idea. And if you’re wondering why Google never thought of this earlier, the answer is, it did.

In 2009, when smartphones were still in their infancy, Google introduced something called Latitude.

The Latitude app, to quote Google’s blog post announcing it, “allows you to share your location with your friends and to see their approximate locations, if they choose to share them with you.” In other words, it’s almost the exact same feature that Google is now touting as the hot new thing.