Yes, Fire Eagle's cool. It also freaks me out
Fire Eagle, Yahoo's new geolocation service, is fresh out of the company's Brickhouse development team, and third parties are lining up to cut deals.
Who can deny that location is going to become increasingly important for Web services? In the initial rush of coverage, MG Siegler correctly noted that Fire Eagle essentially serves as the intermediary between services offering that geolocation capability and those wishing to make use of it. (Fire Eagle's not an original idea. There's also Loopt, a cell phone-based service that allows people to track and communicate with friends, as well as Whrrl and Brightkite.)
So this is progress? Maybe it's just my particular hangup but, truth be told, knowing that "they" (and that includes friends and family) may be watching me does not fill me with much enthusiasm. Sometimes it's comforting just being off the grid. I don't think I missed something growing up in a Fire Eagle-less world and I'm in no hurry to change now.
From a business perspective, Yahoo probably has a winner. Whether it's Fire Eagle or a better, similar incarnation by someone else, this is another signpost of a future where we choose from a panoply of location-based services. From what I understand of Fire Eagle, I can't find any evidence that it won't succeed. Already, more than 50 services make use of the Fire Eagle technology and more will follow. Unfortunately, don't you just know that some marketing go-getter is going to figure out a way to exploit location-based programs to shove targeted advertising (and spam, naturally) down our throats as we navigate around town. Again, you don't have to play. And you can shut the darned thing off for a time. Still...
The reassuring part is that Fire Eagle is permission-based. And Tom Coates, who joined Yahoo from the BBC to serve as product director at Yahoo's Brickhouse, said all the right things about protecting privacy rights at the Fire Eagle debut. The service does allow you to restrict location reporting or even shut it down for a period of time. Without that variable privacy feature, Fire Eagle would be one more hellish intrusion into our already over-snooped, overwrought lives.
So now, Yahoo's (rightly) taking a "let 1,000 flowers bloom" approach by opening up the APIs to the rest of the Internet, and the wisdom of the free market will decide the matter. For better, or for worse. We'll see.
(For more, check out what Webware's editor in chief, Rafe Needleman, had to say about the pluses and minuses of Fire Eagle on the CNET News Daily Debrief.)
Charles Cooper has covered technology and business for more than 25 years. Before joining CNET News, he worked at the Associated Press, Computer & Software News, Computer Shopper, PC Week, and ZDNet. E-mail Charlie. 
And there is no denying the ultra importance of where all this stands from an Historical view, where now centuries turn to decades, decades to years and years to days....
How much better than this does it get? Is Fire Eagle today's Fahrenheit 451?
"From what I understand of Fire Eagle, I can't find any evidence that it won't succeed." It doesn't even sound mildly interesting. I predict that it will fail.
I wonder why they stole the name? And if they didn't steal it: How in the world did they come up with it? It has absolutely nothing to do with the product- and doesn't even imply any kind of actual concept. Even Firefox can run a longer logic then Fire Eagle=Geolocation Service. Or perhaps they're running the same logic in naming as the Firefox people? And if so: Are they insane?
For example, Oops I'm Late! (www.oopsimlate.com) uses one's calendar and GPS to send notifications using email/sms or phone. There is no need to inform a 3rd party where you are; the software sends straight from the phone to the contacts choosen. Enhance your reputation, keep your courtesy quota up and never be "late" again!
Maybe you are scared of technology because of books like 1984 or Fahrenheit 451? But any good technology can have negative side affects. It is just up to all of us to be sure the positive out weights the negative.
I personally feel that greater transparency and less privacy is a good thing in society. While Fire Eagle might track, and expose, your frequent visits to Motel Nada during working hours. It could also help authorites track and find the guy who just robbed the corner Wells Fargo.
Honest people will gain, dishonest people will lose.
For starters, any thief who allows him/her self to be monitored like this deserves to be caught and isn't likely intelligent enough to pull it off.
Stop living in fear and stop being such a coward that you offer up everyone's rights just so you can feel safe.
Same thing as saying "if you don't have anything to hide, why would it bother you if I sit outside your living room window staring in with a pair of binoculars?"
Here's a treat for a good dog.
I?m with uLocate and we offer WHERE (www.where.com) to users on a wide array of mobile devices across most carriers. We offer a location based technology service that doesn?t use ?always-on? tracking technology to find users. Rather, the WHERE service relies on its users to update the service on their location and broadcast that to others ONLY when and where they want to do so.
We?re adamant about leaving it up to the user to determine if they want to let their ?buddies? know they may be in a particular location, and if they decide not to, they won?t be tracked. I will not say that the WHERE technology is right for everyone, as referenced in some of the posts above, some individuals have no trouble being tracked 24x7 ? it?s really up to the particular user. For those who don?t want their whereabouts broadcasted to the world for whatever reason, there are apps available that assure privacy.
Thanks,
Dan Gilmartin,
uLocate Communications
Every time I see the arguments that "it isn't a problem if you don't have anything to hide", I can't help but to think of the founding fathers and the 4th amendment to the constitution. Obviously they felt it important enough to add -- whether or not you have anything to hide.
Moreover, the purpose of privacy is not so much to protect us from our neighbors as to protect us from our government. The government is not a staid, stable thing, but rather is subject to zeitgeist. What was once considered sacred and untouchable, such as Habeas Corpus, has been thrown out on a whim. Or the FBI's national security letters -- illegal searches for which you have no recourse. No, we don't need more transparency, thank you.
"(Fire Eagle's not an original idea. There's also Loopt, a cell phone-based service that allows people to track and communicate with friends, as well as Whrrl and Brightkite.)"
My thought is that it'd be nice to sync up what you're up to so you can streamline interpersonal communications; thus, freeing up air time for deeper conversation. This should be inherent in all mobiles AND be more automated (rather than having to input any info at all). System should detect and extrapolate intent of user.
- by byetman August 15, 2008 8:31 PM PDT
- this move has HUGE potential to change the whole LBS game, here's the top 5 reasons why it will WIN. http://www.byetman.com/2008/08/13/5-reasons-fire-eagle-will-succeed-and-5-reasons-the-bird-will-burn/
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