Some Important Questions About Facebook Places

Facebook August 19, 2010 12 Comments @niallharbison

I sat up last night until 2 in the morning leaving me wrecked today just to see the Facebook places announcement. I knew it would be a fairly big deal and I just wanted to hear from the horses mouth what they would be releasing. We have all known that this would be coming for some time and the biggest questions I suppose we all had was just how far Facebook would take the location and how deep they would integrate it in to the site. For me the presentation left a good few questions that we will all need to mull over in the coming days and as we are not going to be able to get our hands on the new service and review it I thought I would love to get all of your opinions and see what other people thought of the following questions about Facebook places…

What Does This Mean For Foursquare And Gowalla?

I think the tweet I saw down below last night really summed it up best for me. What this actually means for Foursquare and Gowalla is not entirely clear at this stage. During the presentation Foursquare and Gowalla both came on stage to say that this was a great thing and that they would be partnering with Facebook. So the big question is….Is this competition for location based services or something that they can build on top of to get even more users. Maybe they will just build their game functionality and deals by using the Facebook API to reach more users. I’d be interested to hear what current Foursquare users will be doing. I can’t see them not using Facebook so the question is will they use both?

Will This Raise New Privacy Concerns For Facebook?

The one thing that came through when watching the presentation was the fact that Facebook put such a high emphasis on the privacy element of this feature. They had their hands seriously burned last time they launched a new feature set in May and look like they have learned the lesson by making this service opt in instead of opt out. Having said that I already see blog posts about privacy concerns this morning so it will be interesting to see what people say about a sensitive subject like location. For what it is worth it looked like they had covered off all the bases in my opinion.

Will There Be Widespread Adoption?

We know that location is a space that is growing fast but it is still mostly limited to a niche group of savvy online people for now. Will the average Facebook user jump in and embrace this new feature immediately or is it something that will take a while to develop? It seems incredibly useful to me and a real way to connect with my friends in the real world but I spend my time online as it is. Do you think the average punter will embrace this quickly?

How Quickly Will Facebook Start Monetizing Places?

I see this as a massive cash cow for Facebook but the big question is just how quick they will look to do that. It sounded during the presentation that they just wanted to focus on the product (And in fairness that is what Facebook usually does) until they get it 100% right but the potential for local deals, advertising and rewards can not be ignored. The potential for brands and businesses with this new feature to get innovative is massive and it’ll be a question of just how much Facebook looks to monetize the platform in the early days.

What Do You Think?

Will you be using Facebook places as soon as you can get your hands on it? Is it something that you will use to connect with your friends with? Are you turned off by location? Do you think this is going to be an overnight success or just another minor feature on Facebook that many will ignore. It’s too early to judge this new feature so I’d love to hear your thoughts?

Tags

checkins
Facebook
Location
online. geolocation
places

Comments

http://www.snarah.wordpress.com sNarah

I’m not mad into the whole location thing – I do tend to read up on them, but only because I *have* to. Use them myself. Neh. Like you said in your post about Foursquare, the people that I see using the app are on Twitter and that’s how I interact with them.

None of my ‘real’ friends use it – I doubt they even know what purpose it serves. I can only imagine their paniced reaction when discussing a platform like FB places with them and the questions that would follow: “WHY would you want the world the know where you are”, “HA, maybe put in a note too where your housekey is hidden” or statements similar to that.

So – like the other location platforms, I’d say FB places will probably picked up by the techies first. If they make it popular – then, and only then, will Average Joe on Facebook start toying with it.
http://dockerdog.com/ Howard Smith

Niall, this is a tempest in a teapot. I’ve been working directly in the on-line world for about 12 years now, with few exceptions most of my FB friends have been similarly involved, either via engineering, marketing, or some similar occupation. Of all of them that I’m involved with via FB, how many use Foursquare? ONE, exactly one. And even he’s only doing it because he works in on-line marketing. Bottom line, location-based services are DOA. No one really cares.
http://www.simplyzesty.com Niall Harbison

Ah not sure Howard if it is a tempest in a teacup type thing. I agree that it is not for me and a lot of people fail to understand it but the fact that so many of us carry around little computers in our pockets opens up so many possbilities. The real excitement is a couple of years off when (and if) this is widely adopted.
http://dockerdog.com/ Howard Smith

But Niall, who really cares that much where you are at any given point in time from a “push” standpoint? No one actually. Now on the other hand, from a “pull” standpoint, that’s a big difference. “Wifey, I don’t need to know where you are every moment of the day..” vs. “Wifey, I need to know where you are RIGHT NOW!” A big difference between the two perspectives, very different from what’s being proposed by the current applications. And also leads us into new perspectives on privacy issues, not to mention trust issues between significant others. As usual, the web continues to change our social relationships worldwide. Foursquare and the like are not the end, nor are they the solution. They’re just the beginning of changes to come over the next several years. They’ll be superseded by other, more contemporary applications.
http://pigflog.com Adam McGlue

Thanks for the post Mr H – I had no idea Facebook were about to do that.

I think you should have just named your article: “Foursquare – Sudden Death”
http://dockerdog.com/ Howard Smith

Adam, I can’t disagree with you about a sudden death for Foursquare, but I still don’t believe it will make a big difference in the short term. Case in point: I pretty much work with and associate with internet professionals only and of them all I know only one guy that actually uses Foursquare, an internet marketer that posts everything he does.. hotels he stays at, golf courses he’s playing at, restaurants he’s dining at.. frankly, it’s quite annoying to me and my peers, we really don’t care what he’s doing all the time. (Disclosure: I’m a registered Foursquare member, but I don’t use it because I believe it’s an extreme in egoism.) Think back to the mid-90s, we saw a turn-around at that time from push- to pull-technology. We’re going to see the same thing occur in this marketspace, as I suggested in my previous post. As smartphones with GPS become more ubiquitous, I don’t want to hear from each and every one of 50 friends every 30 minutes or so what they’re doing, the noise level will rise to an unacceptable rate. Again, as I suggested in my previous post, I’d rather pick out an individual on demand and ask where they are and what they’re doing on my own terms. Make no mistake, that’s the future, that’s where we’re headed within the next few years, and it will create a whole new set of social norms, just as the internet has.
http://dockerdog.com/ Howard Smith

One final comment from me, a link to the Silicon Alley Insider re: Facebook’s announcement. Of greater interest is the varied comments posted by readers on their opinion of its relevance: http://www.businessinsider.com/the-implications-of-facebooks-places-2010-8?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+typepad%2Falleyinsider%2Fsilicon_alley_insider+%28Silicon+Alley+Insider%29&utm_content=My+Yahoo
http://www.djnightlife.com DJ NightLife

With this feature, it will be more important than ever to only have your real friends on your Facebook. Not sure I want my boss to constantly know where I am.
http://www.simplyzesty.com Niall Harbison

Its a very good point DJ that I had not thought about. You will of course be able to go in and categorize groupls of friends and play with the settings but I have never done that in my life and would be surprised if many do!
http://theredowl.com TheRedOwl

For people like me who have little to no interest in sharing my location(at least not on a regular basis like many foursquare/Gowalla users) there must be some kind of benefit. Deals with local businesses, national chains, etc.

I see the possibilities and benefits for all parties involved in this thing- I just don’t like location sharing very much. There’s no reason for me to “check in,” period, unless there is some kind of benefit for me. I love the nature of sharing in social media-I just think there can be TOO much of a good thing, like that best man who rigged up his buddies wedding bed to tweet during sex. TMI.
http://www.philswinney.com Phil Swinney

It’s sort of funny how we debate what people will and won’t do. Ten years ago I would of thought that people using Facebook as their online journal cataloging their life for so called “friends” to be absurd. Why would I care what other people are doing? Do I need to know that my friend Jenny from high school who I haven’t seen in 20 years likes the way they make her lattes at Starbucks? At the time I certainly didn’t think so. But, as always people never cease to amaze me. Facebook’s Wall changed how we communicate.

It’s easy to quickly discount Places and to judge human behaviour based on what we know from the past and what we assume we know about the present. The delta is curiosity. We all love to see who’s doing what, when and where. FB Places will no doubt open the doors to a new behaviour, whether or not people adopt it is obviously the big question that only time will tell. But, don’t discount the power of FB’s network. When you have hundreds of millions of users its very easy to learn and adjust to their needs by studying how they interact. If the first run at Places isn’t perfect you can bet FB won’t be long in making the adjustments. It’s huge opportunity for them and I doubt their going to let it fail.

I think the people who are probably going to be the most excited about this tool are the online marketers. FB has to be really careful how they leverage it from a marketing perspective, but assuming they get it right they could redefine the word “targeted”.
O. Bengtson

This should be called “kidnapping made easier” or “stalker easy”

Ajpeanut9 on How To Increase Your Youtube Video Views

Richard Mabry on How Twitter Alienated Me With New Tweetdeck

Imagine Internet Without Blogs, Emails, Calendars And Without Google? - ColderICE: Ecommerce Social Business | ColderICE: Ecommerce Social Business on What Facebook’s Timeline Brand Pages Will Look Like

The 100 best viral, social and marketing videos from 2011 | Marketing KCTC | Scoop.it on 100 Of The Best Marketing, Social And Viral Videos From 2011 [Part 1]

Cindy on The Complete Guide To Increasing Likes On Your Facebook Page

Some Important Questions About Facebook Places

What Does This Mean For Foursquare And Gowalla?

Will This Raise New Privacy Concerns For Facebook?

Will There Be Widespread Adoption?

How Quickly Will Facebook Start Monetizing Places?

What Do You Think?

Tags

checkins
Facebook
Location
online. geolocation
places

Tags

Other Posts You May Like

Facebook Study – Your Photos Could Be Seen By Close To 8 Million “Friends”

What Facebook’s Timeline Brand Pages Will Look Like

Advanced tips for getting the most out of your Facebook ads

Glassdoor Launch ‘Inside Connections’ Use Facebook To Find Your Dream Job

Comments