Facebook and its 500 Million Users Join the Location Game
By: Hillel Fuld
Just in case you have not yet noticed, no one wants privacy anymore. Facebook is dominating the Web with its whopping 500 million users, Twitter is flourishing with people sharing every last detail about their lives, Foursquare and Gowalla are booming in popularity, and now, this whole lack of privacy is reaching totally new levels.
Facebook launched its own location services called Facebook Places (no surprises there), in which people can share their current location with their Facebook friends. Unlike other features that were enabled on Facebook and opted users in automatically when it came to privacy, this service is optional. In fact, it is strangely not even available on the site, but only on the iPhone Facebook app or touch.facebook.com from your mobile browser.
So why is this big? Well the answer is a simple numbers games and applies to other technologies on Facebook as well. Basically, Foursquare is great, but it is far from becoming mainstream, so most people will not see when their friends are nearby or in the same restaurant as them. With Facebook Places and Facebook’s unprecedented numbers, this new service basically brings location to normal people.
Of course, there are going to be many who oppose using Facebook Places due to the complete and total lack of privacy in its very concept. In addition, I can only imagine what this will do to the home burglary rate, which Facebook has already facilitated with its status updates (people posting on Facebook that they are going on vacation for two weeks).
On the flip side, if used carefully and responsibly, I see a lot of benefit coming from Facebook Places. For example, it has happened to me on countless occasions that I returned home from a venue only to find out later that a friend was there too. This would allow me to know that information in real time and hook up with that friend.
The new service, in its default settings, allows people to check you in to a location. As Gawker so subtly put it, disable that feature now. I am pretty sure you do not want others letting the world know when you are visiting the Dr., cheating on your diet at Mcdonalds, or on a vacation ten hours away from home.
However you decide to use Facebook Places, or if you decide to not indulge at all, there is no question, this is going to change everything when it comes to location, real time updates, and a complete lack of privacy on the Web.
To read more about Facebook Places, you can take a look at the Facebook blog post here. I personally do not have an opinion yet since despite downloading the new iPhone app and checking out the mobile site, the feature was nowhere to be found for me. Turns out, for now it is only available in the U.S.
Have you tried it? Were you impressed? Please let us know what you thought of Facebook Places in the comments. You can also share your thoughts with me on Twitter.
