Social applications are the flavour of the month. And for good reason – they are incredibly popular. I don’t need to tell you this. But just because you have a new technology it doesn’t mean that you have to try and force it into the social square.

This thought was triggered by Google Latitude which was launched earlier this month. In a nutshell, Google Latitude tells you where your friends are at this very instant. For more info, Zoe has a nice summary here. The concept interested me and I wanted to try it. But with who?

I initially thought close friends and family. After more thought, for people that had never come across this technology my random invitation to share our every move and location would seem at the very least somewhat creepy. And I’m not sure if I’m ready to see the secret life of my parents.

So I chose my girlfriend. I know. I’m an idiot. Her immediate reaction was “Don’t you trust me?” This was then followed a couple of days later by “why are you always tracked over at West End?” That story stops here.

However, the moral of the story is that I don’t think Google Latitude is suited to being a social application. Not yet anyway. Wisey makes a great point here. She says that it is a very useful application for individuals to opt into receiving communication from like-minded brands in their geographical location. However, as a social tool it is currently a bit too scary.

That’s not to say it won’t be successful. It just can’t play with the cool kids at the moment.

A great example of a loner application is Bedpost (courtesy of Springwise). Bedpost is a personal application that allows you to track your sex life. Details such who it was with, how long it lasted and how you rated it can be inputted into your private database – all very handy for those difficult doctor questions down the track. Bedpost has a very clear disclaimer saying “For your eyes only, Bedpost offers zero social networking functions other than partner logins.” Of course, you could be mortified if this information became public so trust is a big factor here.

Google Latitude could be very successful in the same way. At the moment it is too raw and users are too protective of their online identity for it to take off. There is potential for it to be further used in recording personal photos and data entry. There is potential for business to use it for customers who opt in to receive relevant information when they are in the area. There is potential for it to become popular in personal communication such as emails.

However, until users become comfortable with it, it remains a private and personal application. And that’s not a bad thing.

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