Facebook Places in 7 minutes

By Tim Caynes on 19 August 2010

There are already a number of geolocation applications out there that have built sizeable subscription bases and established some fierce application loyalties.

How might Facebook tap into this trend, since they already have the subscription base that includes all other subscription bases? The answer is Facebook Places, which, apparently, isn’t Foursquare, or Gowalla. Not at all.

Facebook Places launched with the usual un-tucked shirt affair in a conference room in Palo Alto. Mashable were there to report live on the proceedings and offer their opinion on what Facebook Places is and what it isn’t.

In a 7 minute period of updates, between talking about shuttle buses and teenage CEOs, they pretty much communicated everything you need to know, so here are the salient points from their commentary:

• Share where you are and find where your friends are

• Check in and add places

• Discover new places around you, and places Facebook thinks are relevant to you

• Tag friends, in photos, that are with you at a specific location

• There are Place Pages that will have maps and who’s checked in

• Turn features off. And on again

There are, naturally, a number of privacy concerns, especially around the ability to tag other users who might not actually be checked in, but Mark Zuckerberg assures us that you can configure all that stuff, so not to worry.

Office reaction to the Facebook Places launch was generally underwhelming but, as we know, you underestimate the potential of Facebook at your peril, so we’ll be sure to monitor the progress as the service evolves and uptake increases. I’m already looking forward to knowing exactly where my friends are playing Farmville.

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