Austin360 blogs > Digital Savant > Archives > 2010 > August > 19 > Entry
Facebook adds ‘Places,’ partners with Gowalla and Foursquare
Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg introduces Facebook Places at the company’s headquarters Wednesday. Photo by Tony Avelar, Associated Press.
Geolocation apps just went more mainstream Wednesday to the tune of about 500 million users. Facebook has added “Places,” a new way to add location data to status updates and to tag friends based on a place. (Whether they want that or not; more on that in a minute.)
The anticipated announcement last night was not surprising. What was surprising was that rather than rolling out its own location-based service, Facebook has partnered with Austin-based Gowalla and Foursquare, two companies that have already made a beachhead in that market and have in turn partnered with media outlets and businesses. Yelp and Booyah are also partners in Places, which will allow Facebook users to “Check in” at locations.
An iPhone app update released last night includes the Places feature, but so far it doesn’t work in Austin. Facebook said it’s working on Android and BlackBerry updates to add the feature, but didn’t give a timeframe on when that will happen.
According to Facebook, you’ll be able to see a place showing who is checked in where you are or where friends are nearby. Mashable has posted a useful guide on how the service works, issues around privacy concerns and what to expect.
Given the flack Facebook has gotten recently over privacy, it’s a little surprising that the feature will allow Facebook users to tag their friends to a location without their permission. Already, posts have gone up on how to disable the feature for those who want to protect their privacy from Places.
Austin’s Michelle Greer posted a blog item last night, “Consider Your Legal Rights When Using Geolocation,” something everyone who plans to use Facebook Places should read first.
What do you think? Is this a feature you’ll use?
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