Take a hike, leave a (virtual) trace?

Yesterday, Google launched a product that will make some hikers leap for joy and others wince. We go to the woods to get away from it all, right? At least some of us do. Well, with the new My Tracks application for Android-powered cell phones (like the T-Mobile G1), you can beam a real-time track of your hike to Google Maps to let your friends … or the world … know where you are.  Safety concerns are always an issue with friends and family who aren’t out there with you, and this is a new way of checking in. Smart, or intrusive? You decide. It’ll certainly make creating trail maps a snap, provided you have some way to power that cell phone.  To learn more, see the official Google announcement, and thanks to Anne Easterling for the heads-up on this one.