What is it?
Facebook Places is a (currently US-only) additional feature which allows Facebook Mobile users to check into locations. Sound familiar? Like Foursquare/Gowalla, you can signal your location, whether it’s at a bar, shop, building, wherever. A key difference between Places and Foursquare is that Facebook has a ready-built userbase in the millions. Places also allows your friends to check you in for you, in a way that one Facebook engineer described as someone tagging you in a photo. And finally, there’s no reward system like badges – it’s a purely social tool. Facebook’s intention is to eventually allow third-party services such as Gowalla or Foursquare integrate, though it’s so far unclear as to how this would work exactly.
How does it work?
US users with iPhones or phones with geolocation and HTML5 enabled can head here to enable Places, which should appear as an icon on the Facebook Mobile home page. On tapping this, a user can tap the ‘check-in’ option. Facebook detects where you are (presumably through GPS) and gives you a Nearby Places list of options. If your exact location isn’t listed, you can search for more places or add locations. After writing a status update describing your location and checking in, your location is shared with the world. Users enabling public check-ins can see who else is at the same location (NB – even if you’re not friends with them) which has raised privacy concerns. There is another useful, in-depth exploration of possible privacy issues and third-party service limitations over on PC World.
Who will use this?
Because Facebook is considerably more mainstream than Foursquare, this is likely to raise awareness of the location-based services mechanism to a wider audience. We’ve defined audience groups and their activities on Facebook Places by adapting Forrester’s generic social technographics.
Conversationalists
- Will enable publicly visible check-ins
- Will use Places to enrich existing network relationships by using it as a basis for real-life interaction
- Will write more creative check-in updates, particularly inviting others to join them
- Will comment on others’ check-ins and potentially change their own behaviour depending on others’ locations.
Critics
- Will post short tips or location reviews for their personal networks as check-in updates
- Will add to Facebook’s existing list of locations.
Collectors
- Will check-in friends on their behalf
- Will integrate other location-based service applications with Facebook
Joiner / Spectator
- May use Places if majority of existing network of friends does.
- Will be low-level users.
For now, we’ll be leaving out our usual ‘Industry Thought’ section of the tech briefing, since Facebook has said there are no plans to try and make money from Places. Certainly, it is hard to see how a brand might leverage Places as it exists now any differently to Foursquare. As users integrate the two platforms, any benefits from partnering with Foursquare will apply to both platforms – though as mentioned the status with third-party applications is as yet unclear. Despite all the talk otherwise, this is clearly Facebook playing catch-up – which is no bad thing for anyone wanting to see location services go mainstream.
[...] in the US recently, we wrote our usual tech briefing on the subject where you can read exactly what Facebook Places is and who will use it. UK coverage has kicked off after Places’ product manager, Michael Sharon briefed journalists [...]