Google Waves Knife At Loopt, Pelago With Latitude Service
Google's (GOOG) new Latitude service -- which shows your friends' location on a Google map on your cellphone -- could be big trouble for several startups that offer similar services. These include Loopt, whose backers include Sequoia Capital, and Pelago, whose backers include Kleiner Perkins and Amazon (AMZN) founder Jeff Bezos.
Loopt co-founder and CEO Sam Altman says his company's software still has advantages: Loopt offers more features, like its "mix" service that lets you find out who's nearby, and connections to other services like Twitter. It's available on more phones.
And Loopt (the company) is more than the Loopt app itself -- it powers other location-based services for mobile carriers. So even if Latitude takes off, Loopt Inc. isn't necessarily screwed.
But our thesis all along has been that it's going to be hard for companies like Pelago and Loopt to compete with big companies like Google and Facebook, which already know all your friends and can turn 'location' features on any time they want.
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