Facebook Places knows where you are 
Social network launches location-based service
By Gahlord Dewald, Tuesday, August 24, 2010.
Flickr image courtesy of joelogon.As part of the ongoing trend of layering digital data on top of the real world, Facebook has entered the location-based services game. Until now, this space has been occupied by Foursquare, Gowalla and a few others.
Existing location-based services have tended to focus on developing a game-like user model based on personal status. Checking in can get you special status: such as "Mayor" for a particular location when using Foursquare, or Gowalla's digital souvenirs.
This social-status-based gaming aspect has probably been an important and effective driver of initial user growth for these services -- who doesn't want to be "mayor" of their favorite hang-out spot? And when you don't have a lot of social connections already inside the service you're using, the built-in game aspect is the only fun to be had, really.
more...
Premium Member account.
Premium Members have full access to all news archives & premium content.
Purchase Premium+ Membership for $99/year OR
Premium Membership for $49/year
All rights reserved. This article may not be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever, in part or in whole, without written permission of Inman News. Use of this article without permission is a violation of federal copyright law.
