Spot Your Friends' Location in Real-time

Franson Technology has launched GpsGate.com, a GPS mapping portal designed to enable people to share their locations from their Windows laptop or Windows Mobile-based Pocket PC device with anyone they have personally approved to ‘spot’ them online.

GpsGate.com offers a way for a group of friends or colleagues to synchronize their lives. Anyone that belongs to the same group can share their current location with the others in their group.

By logging in to GpsGate.com, users will be able to see their buddies moving in real-time on a map. To share their position with others in their group, they simply need to install GpsGate software on their Windows laptop or Windows Mobile Pocket PC. This software will enable them to share their GPS signal so that it can be received by fellow group members.

GpsGate.com also offers a Google Earth plug-in so that friends’ locations can be spotted on a satellite image rather than a map.

“Our aim for GpsGate.com is to provide a central portal for broadcasting your location for a specific group of friends or work colleagues, and for you to be able to ‘spot’ them as well,” said Johan Franson, president of Franson Technology. “GpsGate is more than just a fun way to keep track of the people in your life—it offers very practical solutions for both work and personal purposes. In the near-term, our plans are to enable users to integrate parts of GpsGate.com to their own homepages so they can broadcast a sailing boat competition, for example, or allow friends and family to track you on your family trip.”

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The company also plans to add business tools to GpsGate.com, such as the ability to track delivery trucks or field service technicians.

The GpsGate software for Windows or Windows Mobile Pocket PC is US$29.95 while access to GpsGate.com is free.