• eweek, Friday, March 12, 2010 2:30 PM

Twitter has finally flipped the switch on its highly-anticipated location-sharing feature. Of critical importance to users and privacy advocates alike, the microblogging service has made location awareness optional and opt-in. The geo-location feature tags users' tweets based on where they are tweeting from. According to Twitter cofounder Biz Stone, the new feature will save lives. "Let's say I'm at my office and I hear a loud boom," says Stone.

"It sounded serious, so I search Twitter for 'boom' ... Among the first results could be someone who tweeted 'Boom go the fireworks!' This could be anywhere in the world. However, if that person had activated the new tweet location feature then the neighborhood data under the tweet would read, 'SoMa.' Now I know it's just fireworks going off in my neighborhood." That's assuming the information being tweeted is accurate, of course.

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