Loopt Launches Location HistoryLoopt Launches Location History

Only days after launching Loopt 3.0.1 for iPhone, mobile social-mapping service Loopt unveiled a feature that allows users to access the last 30 days of their location history as a downloadable Keyhole Markup Language (KML) file.

Developed for Google Earth, KML is a file that includes data associated with a user's location that can be used to create more interactive trip logs or maps. Users check in and share locations with Loopt and it saves tracked points in the background.

"Your KML file can be used by Google Earth, for example, to create some cool visual mashups of trips you take, for example. You might want add geo-tagged photos to your mashups. You might want to study your driving routes to find a more efficient commute," said Loopt in its blog. "You might be interested to see how many miles you travel in a week, a month, a year. You could turn it on at the beginning of a road trip, and off again at the end."

Users can turn Location History off and on. The feature is off by default, according to Loopt. Users can hide their location on a friend-by-friend basis. Through push technology, account-holders running iOS4 also can choose to receive alerts when friends are close by, even if Loopt is not running in the foreground.

"As with all versions of Loopt, you're always in control of who can see your location," the company said.

On July 2, Loopt's latest iPhone version hit iTunes. With the new release, users can share their background for up to 24 hours, compared with eight hours in the prior edition.

Loopt 3.0.1 is compatible with iOS3 and iOS4, although users must run iOS4 to access the KML background features. In addition, users can create Facebook events on Loopt; friends can participate and reply from within Loopt.

"We got over 300,000 upgrades in the first two days," Loopt said. "We're seeing over 250,000 requests for Pulse information (Events, Places) every day, and 30,000 daily friend invites are going out."