I discovered Glympse by using the new Windows Marketplace for Mobile, which goes to show you just how powerful that piece of software is going to be.
In short, Glympse is a free, easy to use, no strings attached application that allows certain contacts you select to track your location/travels in timed increments. Think of it this way: say you are taking a road trip to visit some friends and you think you'll be there by 4:30pm. Well, with Glympse your friends can see exactly where you are on that trip without bothering you (i.e.getting that call while driving "How much longer do you think?").
I gave this app a quick spin and came away impressed. It's both visually appealing, simple, effective and kind of fun to use. Best part is there is no signing up, enrolling or hoops to jump through. All the other person needs is an email/sms account and access to the internet to click a hyperlink.
Take a look after the jump to see it in action and how it works.
When you first launch the application, it's like any other mapping software--you hit the right menu, choose "Share my location" to start up your GPS. Near the top you can see your GPS status at all times.
Next you hit the "Send Glympse" left softkey and simply select your contact(s) in which you choose to share your location.
After that you get some options: how often to update your location (anywhere from 5 mins to 4 hours; default 30mins); Add a message, where you can pre-select a huge assortment of texts or write your own; Add a destination to help better show the whole trip.
Finally you hit "send" and off goes your Glympse which you can then manage on your end, specifically modify the above options or just delete the Glympse.
Your recipient receives their email with a hyperlink. They simply click this and get a live Google Map with your avatar (nice touch), name, location, direction and speed. This info is then updated for them every X mins, which was determined by your options above.
And really that's it. It was simple to use, fun to setup, the icons and graphics are very modern looking and it works. I can totally see using this for when I'm visiting people or planning to meet up with a group (not everyone uses Google Latitude). Considering it is free and runs on all Windows Mobile platforms (5, 6, Pro, Standard), it really can't be beat.
Grab it in the Marketplace today and give it a go!
