Facebook Places: What you Need to Know about Facebook's new Location Feature

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A no-frills share your location with your friends feature was what Mark Zuckerberg announced early this morning (Thursday, GMT-time) Facebook Places will pop up as an option on mobile phones ennabled with a Facebook app, letting you share your location with your friends much the same way you’d share a link.

Facebook location has no gaming element, there are no badges here as there are on location network Foursquare.. it’s about finding where your friends are. Though the service does link into both Foursquare and Gowalla apps.

1) Let your friends know where you’re hanging out

2) See where your friends are.

3) Helping you see what’s going on – Discovery of new places

4) The digital trail: You are leaving trails. Sort of like scent trails, but prettier, this are the digital trails you drag behind you. You may go back and look at these in 20/30 years.

5) It’s not scary big brother stuff! apparently – it’s not about broadcasting your location to the world – it’s about sharing where you are with your friends.

6) Each place has a page – you can see the friends or other people who have checked in ato that location.

7) Tagging – geolocate another person (@john smith), or a photo with your facebook status. Tagging makes this special.

8) Though demo-ed on an iPhone, you don’t need a phone to make this work..

9) Privacy Limitations: it is default set to friends only, you can only check in people you are friends with and you have to be there to check your friends in. You can deny your friends the ability to check you in..

10) Open to partners – open API

Anna Leach