I like the idea. However, which service would you suggest atebits use? Skyhook is the only one with a public API that I am aware of currently. And I don't know what, if anything, they charge software vendors to make use of their geolocation services. (I believe Skyhook will also do IP-based resolution when a WiFi fix is not available, so desktop users would also work -- albiet with very low fix resolution.)

Twinkle does it this way.

I don't think I 'always' want to update my location.
Sometimes, I do super secret stuff, and I don't want people to know where I am at that moment.
But of course, I do need to keep tweeting about it.
This would totally blow my cover.

Seriously, this could be a bit annoying. :)

@ashponders - Near By is a great feature, but if users have to click on locate with every Tweet, users aren't going to do it. So if I'm at work, I would love to see who's Tweeting around me. If I'm at home, I would love to see what happening around me.

@Christopher A. Wichura - Location API? Just get it from the iPhone.

@Floris - What I'm suggesting is an option to always find my location. So if you don't want Tweetie to always find it, you can manually do it. :)

its good to have it as an option. also is there a way to update location without a new tweet? i can't seem to find this on the iPhone app.

I just think this should be an option in the preferences dialog. There is an option to disable the location updates and remove the button completely, so just also have the option to always update the location as well. In this always update mode, maybe have a different icon for the location that lets you NOT update the location THIS TIME. So instead of updating immediately when you click the new tweet button, update the location when the user hits Send.