Yesterday Facebook announced their much anticipated location-based feature, Facebook Places. Similar to platforms like Foursquare or Gowalla, Facebook Places allows users to ‘check in’ to venues as a way to connect with friends and discover cool things about the city around them. As a personal user of both Foursquare and Gowalla, its been impressive to see how people and businesses alike have quickly adopted the tools and added value to the experience – online and off.
While Facebook Places has only rolled out to select mobile users in the US, from watching the Twitter stream and commentary on Facebook’s blog today, it appears that many are already up in arms about privacy. To people not already accustomed to the idea of checking in, I can understand the hesitation. Some people may not immediately see the value in broadcasting their location in real-time to their friends or people nearby.
I for one love the concept of checking in. By checking in with other social platforms, I’ve been able to see friends that I wouldn’t have otherwise run into, get free appetizers at my favorite restaurant or 20% off of my bill, know where the ‘hot spots’ are when I’m visiting a new city…and I could cite several other examples. I’m not concerned that by virtue of ‘checking in’ someone will stalk me or rob my apartment. I use common sense when I communicate across social networks, whether checking in at one of my favorite spots, posting a photo or updating my status. I am mindful of the people I choose to connect to and what information I share with them. I know what my privacy settings are and customize them according to my needs. Aside from checking into my home, the gas station or the post office, I will use Facebook Places to leave tips, discover new hangouts and connect with people in my city.
So the idea of checking in so far doesn’t sound half bad, right? Well, this is where Facebook Places gets a little messy. The main point of contention appears to be over the functionality that allows your friends to check in on your behalf. Yes, a friend could potentially tag you at a location, just as they would in a photo or status update. You can only imagine the interesting predicaments that this could result in if people aren’t careful. If you’re concerned about this, AllFacebook.com has provided a simple, 4-step process for adjusting your privacy settings on Places.
All things considered, I do feel there will be a shift in who people choose to connect to, should Facebook Places catch on. Many people still view ‘friends’ as social currency, and connect to them whether or not they consider those same people friends offline. While there are ways to create lists and ensure certain people don’t have access to information, there is a threshold where it becomes too difficult to manage all of one’s social circles and identities online. While Facebook’s mission is to make the world more open and connected, I’d question whether or not Facebook Places could make people view their networks as more private and closed. If you use Facebook Places regularly, perhaps you may think twice before connecting to your mom’s Bridge partner or that guy from grade school that took Dungeons & Dragons a little too seriously.
Aside from using Facebook Places personally, I think there is even more value with using this technology for brands and local businesses. Think of it as word of mouth to the nth degree. Companies can add their location on Places just like the one we created for JWT Atlanta. You can even claim your Place and associate it with your current Facebook page (see ‘Is this your business?’ in image below). In order to do so you must be an authorized representative of the business and provide official documentation including a local business license, BBB Accreditation, Certificate of Formation or Articles of Incorporation. As for right now, larger brands and chains will have to wait to claim all of their locations, but it is expected to roll out soon.
So I am curious to hear, what are your thoughts about Facebook Places and other location-based platforms? Are you for or against the ‘check in’?
IM, Chat, Email and Social Networks Gone Wild
December 8th, 2009 by Rory Partalis
Categories: Digital Innovations | Tags: all-in-one, api, buddy media, chat, comments, communication, content, dashboard, digsby, email, facebook, fan pages, friendfeed, google, google wave, IM, images, inbox, instant messaging, media landscape, mobile, open, ping.fm, pixelpipe, platforms, profiles, social media, Social Networks, status updates, trillian, twitter, video, websites | 2 Comments »
The Social Media Landscape has become so complex that something needs to be developed to help us manage all of our profiles.
There is a quiet battle brewing under the shiny-new-thing syndrome we all are guilty of from time to time. This battle grew out of the complexity and exploding number of websites the average internet user has profiles on today. Modern advertisers and marketers are especially plagued by the inability to keep up with all the comments, inboxes, and instant messaging clients we use to communicate with our family, friends, coworkers and clients.
This provides an opening for smart companies to build an all-in-one online communication dashboard. And this opening gets bigger and bigger as companies like Twitter, Facebook and Google keep rolling out more and more open platforms and APIs. This allows other websites, widgets and mobile apps to have greater access to content and information from those platforms.
Friendfeed was obviously the original social network aggregator, and Facebook mimicked their methods and then bought them outright. Now Google has ambitions with Google Wave, but there are still gaps for an all-in-one online communication dashboard that both pulls and pushes content from all other communication platforms.
I’ve seen a few emerging spaces where companies are trying to partially realize this dream. The first battlefield is combining IM, Email and Social Network communications and content into one chat client. The two rivals I’ve found in this space are Trillian and Digsby. Each are strong contenders and pull from many of the same sources. I am currently testing Trillian on my work laptop and Digsby on my home laptop. I prefer Digsby’s IM client and chat window layout, but like the look of Trillian’s pop-ups better. In my opinion either works fine for my needs, both are strong contenders in the all-in-one space, but neither are quite there yet.
The second area where I see a battle brewing is the content uploading battlefield. This is where you can login to one place and post text, images, videos and other content to all of your social network profiles. Both Ping.fm and PixelPipe have a lot to offer in this space and also push to many of the same sources. Both also have mobile apps, which is awesome for posting content on the go.
I’ve also seen a third battlefield begin to emerge after having a conference call with a company called Buddy Media. They provide a dashboard that manages the layout of Facebook Fan Pages and Twitter Profiles. Very cool stuff, but still in its infancy.
Have you seen any other similar tools like this that would make all of our online lives easier? If so, please mention them in the comments section below.
2 Comments »