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Location-sharing is a major trend for 2010, with Foursquare, Gowalla and others looking to be the hot tickets in the startup realm.
Meanwhile, Google Latitude was rejected from the App Store by Apple, and only works on the iPhone as a web app. That's fueling speculation from 9 to 5 Mac that Apple plans to keep Google at bay long enough to launch its own location-sharing service.
The patent reads:
"Location Sharing: Abstract - Geographic location data is sent from a first device to a second device with a modified message to signal the presence of geographic location data associated with the message. The message can include (or attach) the geographic location data or file, or the message can include a link to a network-based resource which the second device can use to obtain the geographic location data. In some implementations, when a user of the first device views a location on a map display of the first device, a graphical user interface is presented to allow the user to select an option to share the geographic location with the second device. The second device receives geographic location data or a link from the first device which can trigger a map display on the second device showing the location of the first device and, optionally, the location of the second device."
You can read the full patent here.
