London — Facebook has just unfolded its location-based service known as “Places,” the social network’s smartphone location-sharing service launched last month is designed to encourage users to publish their location, is now available in the UK from today.
Some Facebook users who reside in the east of the Atlantic can now share their location on the site. The service is exactly the same in the U.K. as in the U.S. The service allows people to “check in” wherever they are and see who among their friends as they move around in the real world, and other Facebook users is — or has been — at the same location.
The social-networking leader has acquired lists of the locations of UK premises from third party data providers to get the service underway. Facebook Places also lists nearby businesses and places of interests and there is also a map available to see nearby areas and also any other users that may have “checked-in“. The maps are provided by Bing. Users can also tag friends they are with, who will be asked if they want to check in too. A feature called “Here Now” brings up a list of strangers at a given location who have agreed their location can be widely shared.
Michael Sharon, product manager for Places, said that the company is focusing on devising the application for Blackberry and devices functioning on the Android operating system. Currently, Places is now also accessible in the US and the UK for users of iPhone and other smartphones like Blackberry and Android users will be able to view the service over the next few weeks, he said.
He further added that the firm has made Places’ API — the software that enables other programs to interface with it — available, so that Places will be able to integrate with existing location-aware services such as Foursquare.
“We started seeing that in status updates people were saying things like ‘going to the gym’ or ‘hanging out with Joe and Sue’,” Sharon said at the UK launch.
“Hence, we discovered that this is something that people do every single day, telling their friends where they are. Thus, the natural thing is to develop a product that takes advantage of this and makes it easier, more convenient and more social for them to do what they are already doing.”
Furthermore, privacy controls allow users to limit who else on Facebook is allowed to view their location. Users under 18 cannot share their location with anyone except their friends.
The UK is the third country to be given the service, following the initial launch in the US and another roll-out in Japan last week. A European launch is expected to follow in the near future. Social media investors hope location-based services are the next big thing, on apparently scant evidence. Foursquare, which until Facebook entered the fray was lauded as the industry leader, has only three million users worldwide. With more than 500 million users, Facebook has a better chance than any of making it work.
Nevertheless, the major development is just the international roll-out itself. It demonstrates that Facebook has overcome any initial privacy concerns some users and organizations expressed. Also, the expansion indicates that Facebook is on top of whatever technical issues dealing with check-ins entails. Besides, at launch there is no direct money-making scheme linked to Facebook Places. At an unspecified point in the future Facebook plans to use location data to target advertising.