What's a Nice Person Like You Doing in a Place Like That?

So all the talk on the Internet today is Facebook Places!!! Whoo-hoo. The buzz(kill) is that it will wipe out poor little upstart FourSquare, which, er, put location networking on the map.

You remember, we wrote about FourSquare in this column way back in March of this year: "It may not be quite that perfect, but that is the idea behind a kinda-new geolocating social networking app, Foursquare. It actually sounds, in theory, more like a game: "Foursquare is a web and mobile application that allows registered users to connect with friends and update their location. Points are awarded on weekends and non-business hours for "checking in" at venues. Users can choose to have theirTwitter and/or their Facebook accounts updated when they check in." (Wikipedia)

While I never got hooked on it, I do know some friends who found it lots of fun - they tended to be young and urban, as that's where it was most likely to have real impact, though I also found folks who were loving the whole idea of becoming the "mayor" of a particular location they were fond of. The locations themselves found this a good thing, too, especially when they were being "bid on" by users stopping by over and over to rack up visiting points in hopes of winning a mayoralty.

Facebook Places. I dunno. I've tried it out, and while it has potential, I don't quite understand it, either the interface, or the point. For quite some time, Google has had Google locations, which allows you to share with friends who are likewise signed up to do so your location, either from your desktop computer, or from your mobile phone. This can be fun when friends are traveling, for example, especially if they are the type who'll leave messages about their travels.

Facebooks' location app is along the same lines: tell us where you are and what you're doing, and we'll share that with friends who are also signed up.

The Fearful among us have already started bleating about the safety factor: if people know where you are right this very moment, ostensibly your house could be robbed, or you could be met by someone you really didn't care to see. Yes, those are dangers. As is keeping regular habits, such as going off to work from 8 -5 every day, or out running every evening from 7-8, and so on.

The easiest way to get involved is via smart phone. And some friends who are also playing! Or, you can use the touch.facebook.com site. Once you're signed up, you can select a place near you (you will be geolocated by the system), and tell everyone where you are. If the place you are visiting doesn't have a public location already on the system, you can add a place. Be careful here... adding "home" may not be exactly what you want to do, even if you assume the only people who'll see it will be your friends.

You can also tag friends who are with you, but again, this is something you should share with them before you do it on the off chance they don't want other people in your networks to know where they are at this moment.

At this point, the real distinct advantage Places has over FourSquare is the sheer volume of users. Facebook has, I think, beaten Twitter out as the number one social app of the year, if not the decade. Most people I know have it open on their desktops all day long, or check in on their smart phones periodically. Twitter had its moment, but seems to have faded a bit - though I grant, it was where I first confirmed the earthquake early this summer, and I still find it amusing to check in now and again.

I'm likewise sure that Facebook is far from done in terms of adding features and fun to its Place app, and in the near future we'll see more of the quirky gamelike interplay that made FourSquare more than just a check-up-on-your-buddies app.

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