"Find the location of any mobile phone". Okay, that's not a unique claim but, seemingly, World-Tracker's new mobile-phone tracking service is one of the cheapest on offer.
There are some ifs and buts – notably "any" turning out to mean only phones that use one of the big four providers, O2, Vodafone, Orange and T-Mobile. And, the phone has to be switched on. Plus, the whole thing does seem rather Big-Brotherish - to keep a track of some of these issues, see the The Watching Them, Watching Us Spyblog. This specific blog, originally about the ChildLocate service, discusses some of these areas in detail.
But none of these things is likely to stop lots of people and companies considering such a service and looking favourably on World-Tracker's new offering which looks to be among the cheapest - though the cost can be as much as 30p per search if you only buy four searches at a time.
Parents of teenagers are certain to like the idea of a tracking service, almost as much as their kids will hate it. Businesses with a lot of delivery drivers out on the road are going to think it's a great thing, too, even if the drivers don't.
The service might also help you track down a phone you'd accidentally left somewhere. And, you don't have to do a lot of head-scratching to come up with a number of worse-case scenarios where such a service could be a life-saver, particularly to healthcare and social-services professionals working in the field on their own.
On the downside, such systems will never be accurate to better than 50m – currently, in some situations, the accuracy can be 500m or worse. With all services, it's necessary to set up tracking for each phone. In the case of World-Tracker, this involves pinging it an SMS Short Code (88600) message and the user replying. Each is a one-time operation, though, and charged at normal network prices.
World-Tracker's system looks ultra easy to use and allows you to search from a web page or using another mobile. A search from a PC is carried out from World-Tracker's site and requires no special software. You simply log in and type in the mobile number. The system does the rest, providing you with a map or the exact GPS location given as longitude and latitude. A phone search looks even easier to carry out and results in a return text message giving the location of the phone you want to track.
The service is pay-as-you go. Currently, the company is selling four lookups in a pack for £1.18 (£1 plus VAT) - that's around 30p a go - or 25 for £5.88 (£5 plus VAT), which is close to 24p each. As best as we can make out, no other costs, apart from the initial pinging, are involved.
World-Tracker also offers an auto top-up service to ensure that you always have enough credit to do a search. This is set up to deduct £5 each time from a credit card or debit card. Companies will also be able to negotiate special bulk-purchase deals, though we get the impression from World-Tracker that the best it's going to offer initially - for purchases of 300+ searches - is the equivalent of 16p (plus VAT) a time, and that's kind of stiff if you're not a business, because it means laying out just short of £57 in one hit.
We'd guess that lots of parents will think such a service worthwhile for the peace of mind it brings (ditto husbands and wives) - even if it might turn out to be illusionary - and plenty of firms will see it as a quick and cost-effective way of boosting business efficiency.
You can check it out yourself by signing up for a free demo accounts at World-Tracker's site - http://www.world-tracker.com/jpr
So what do you think? Good idea or kind of scary (or maybe both)? Let us know over in the HEXUS.community and also let us know of any ultra-keen tracking deals you've discovered.
