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Facebook Launches Location Based Product

Posted by samzenpus on from the friends-should-already-know-where-you-are dept.

adeelarshad82 writes "Facebook officially launched its 'Places' location-based product, backed by seeming rivals Foursquare and Gowalla. Facebook had been expected to announce a location service ever since it announced the press conference earlier this week. The Places service officially goes live August 19, although an iPhone app will go live on the August 18. According to Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook Places has been in development for several months. It had three goals, he said: helping share where you are in a nice and social way, to see who's around you, and just discover new and cool places to visit in the future."

17 of 130 comments (clear)

  1. And... by Spad · · Score: 4, Insightful

    And so we know exactly where you are all the time and which adverts to serve you.

    1. Re:And... by betterunixthanunix · · Score: 4, Insightful

      No of course not! Really! This system would never get used for such an intrusive advertising technique! It is just to better connect you and your friends!

      18 months later, Facebook announces a new advertising platform...

      --
      Palm trees and 8
    2. Re:And... by gstoddart · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I can understand your concern about the first half, but about the second half....why are so many people always offended by the notion of targeted advertising? People always seem to get mad about the possibility that the ads they see might actually be relevant to them. Why is this so terrible?

      Because, the amount of information a company knows about you in order to do targeted advertising is bordering on the scary.

      The way they collect that information continues to be opaque, and likely spread across a large number of sources, and far too much of your personal life can be cross-referenced without people realizing it. The fact that this information gets collected, and the routinely sold means that a lot of your personal/lifestyle/spending information is just out there for people to use, abuse, or just plain exploit.

      Voluntarily signing up on Facebook so I can tell everybody where I am, what I'm doing, and the names and addresses of everybody I know is like signing up for Big Brother, only with some stupid game involving farming to placate the masses. Some of this stuff used to be considered confidential, and places like banks would guard it. Now, every schmuck with a customer card willingly hands over boatloads of personal information by associating a customer number with everything they buy.

      I mean, seriously, if you go for a prescription to clear up an "infection of a personal nature", do you want to be inundated with ads for anti-itch cream, condoms, yeast infections, incontinence products, free clinics and whatnot? It's like when people say "if you have nothing to hide, why do you have secrets?" -- some information is personal, and isn't really intended to be spread around to everybody.

      This really has to be a generational thing -- a lot of geeks used to be rabid privacy nuts. Now everybody is willing to publish all of this stuff onto Facebook like it's normal for the world to know what gotchies you're wearing, when you've got an itch, and the results of your latest medical tests.

      --
      Lost at C:>. Found at C.
    3. Re:And... by JustinOpinion · · Score: 5, Insightful

      People always seem to get mad about the possibility that the ads they see might actually be relevant to them.

      It's worth remembering that what the viewer considers relevant and what the advertiser considers targeted are not the same thing. You may be interested in computers and sci-fi, but that doesn't mean they will only show you ads for those products. Advertisers try to hit middle-ground in viewers. It's true that it's a waste of their money to try to advertise a product to you that you will never buy (e.g. baby products to people without kids). But they also don't really want to waste advertising to die-hard fans and aficionados, who will already buy those products (of course they need to keep the fans aware of the products to some extent). Advertising dollars do the most good for the group of fence-sitters: people who might or might not purchase the product. This means that if the advertisers are doing their job right of targeting you on products that you're "on the fence" about, then you'll get a bunch of ads for things you don't quite want. In other words, stuff that is only semi-relevant.

      Also worth remember is that quite a bit of advertising has to do with just getting consumers to remember brand names. People always bring up the "I'm a guy--I don't need to see ads for tampons!" but that's actually a case where some advertising to men can make a difference. Guys don't regularly buy tampons, but on the few occasions that they do (girlfriend has just run out and desperately needs more), they want you to walk into the drugstore and, because you're unsure of what to buy, gravitate towards their well-recognized brand ("No boyfriend ever got dumped for buying Tampax")...

      Again, it may not be relevant for you to see Tampax ads, but the company certainly wants you to recognize the brand.

      The only possible reason I can see to be offended is because you have no will power to resist the messages of advertiser

      You're implying that only weak-willed people are affected by ads (implicitly, that you are able to 'resist'). People are more affected by advertising that they realize or would care to admit. If you are among those who are good at spotting crap and not buying it (e.g. making a decision not to buy from companies that make ridiculous claims in their commercials), then properly targeted ads would instead show you the much more subtle kinds of advertising (again, building-up brand recognition and brand image has a large but typically unnoticed effect on your shopping behavior).

      I'm not saying that people are slaves to marketing. You can certainly rise above the ads to some extent. But conversely it is effectively impossible not to be somewhat affected by advertising.

      This is not to say that I think people should be deathly afraid of targeted ads. But let's at least recognize the dangers (or even just nuisances) they present.

  2. Uses by Thanshin · · Score: 4, Insightful

    ...And to target the space laser, of course. We would hate to vaporize the wrong person."

  3. Hmmmm... by shabble · · Score: 3, Insightful

    So then, does this mean your stalkers will know where you are, and your local burglar will know where you aren't?

    --
    http://harridanic.com
    1. Re:Hmmmm... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      ...and your spouse will know which ex's house you're at.

  4. Don't input any real data by hessian · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Apropos of this:

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/google/7951269/Young-will-have-to-change-names-to-escape-cyber-past-warns-Googles-Eric-Schmidt.html

    I don't know why anyone would put any real data into a service like Facebook.

    It's a large, profit-driven, high-margin corporation. You wouldn't tell McDonald's or Coca-Cola what your interests are, where you live, YOUR POLITICAL OPINIONS, who your parents are and who you want to date, would you?

    Stay anonymous. Fill in entertaining bullshit when they ask you personal questions. They think I'm a gay Black Christian Libertarian who wants legal pot and likes chinchillas.

    --
    Futurist Traditionalism
    1. Re:Don't input any real data by houghi · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I don't know why anyone would put any real data into a service like Facebook.

      Because most people have no understanding about what the consequences might be. Apart from the first year or so online, I have used an alias especially to separate real life and online things. Basically because I know people will drag stuff out of context.

      I had an facebook account just to see what it was and got even to the point of having 100 people as 'friends'. Basically people I have no idea of what to say to in real life. So I had no idea why I had them as 'friends'. I guess the number of people on your list is like a pissing contest.

      Anyway: there was only one other person who did not use her own name and that was because she was stalked by her ex and she would want to use her own name. And yes a real name IS real data. And all the other information that people put out there is amazing.

      Just ask one of these people to go to a complete stranger in a pub or on the street and tell them the information they just hared with the world and they will think you are crazy or they are natural attention whores.

      --
      Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
  5. hookup central by eagl · · Score: 4, Insightful

    It's gonna turn into a hookup tool. Like craigslist adult forums, but very very immediate.

    1. Re:hookup central by drooling-dog · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Like craigslist adult forums, but very very immediate.

      Which is pretty much the way they did it 30 years ago...

  6. Re:Turn it Off by Dominic · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Yeah, because this is exactly what burglars have been waiting for! Except it isn't. Most people with stuff worth stealing have jobs, so burglars just have to go to your house in office hours. They're not going to be looking at Facebook.

    Anyway, it's just your friends who can see this. If you are friends with people who will steal with you then you have other problems.

  7. Soylent green is people by ndg123 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    The product isn't the social networking service offered to the mostly unwitting registrants. The product is the data harvested from them and sold to advertisers and other human detritus for their nefarious purposes. The announcement is really "we're going to pump this GPS data out of the data cows and you'll be able to buy it from us". see also: a number of pronouncements from Zuckerberg indicating how much he respects the users.

  8. Re:Turn it Off by LordKronos · · Score: 4, Insightful

    What? It is enabled by default?

    Again?

    When is Facebook going to learn?

    What?
    You actually thought facebook was going to reasonable in their actions regarding privacy?
    Again?
    When are you going to learn?

  9. Re:Unless... by Spad · · Score: 3, Insightful

    All of the tracking, none of the benefits.

  10. Re:Iphone and Windows? by wannabgeek · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I don't know if I'm feeding a troll but let me attempt an answer anyway - it's about the market share of people that actually use the app. My wife has a symbian non-touch phone but it's such a pain to use any of the apps including the browser. The screen size and the keypad for input make it really unusable. Lest you call me fanboy, I own an Android phone and the only Apple device I have is the very first gen iPod.

    --
    I'm much more funny, interesting and insightful than the moderators think
  11. Re:Iphone and Windows? by Americano · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Oh, and if you're going to reply telling me that the Iphone is more popular, have the decency to look up actual market data

    Step away from the keyboard and calm down a little. You're way too invested in hating on the iphone.

    Those other platforms may have more market share - but do they have a bigger market share of FACEBOOK users in the US, which is where this service is rolling out first? Most "mobile" updates I see from people come from Android or Iphone devices, so I'd say that it would certainly fit with my experiences that iPhone & Android constitute a majority devices where the facebook app is installed.

    RIM has a huge market share... and a lot of that market share is business phones, which are locked down. My company wouldn't appreciate me installing Facebook and a bunch of other random apps on my business phone. Looking down my Facebook newsfeed right now, I see 0 people using a Blackberry to post updates, 5 individuals using an iphone, 2 using Android, and 2 using Palm WebOS. Despite that, I know at least 22 of my Facebook "friends" have blackberries - but they're corporate devices.