members share with the world gives the social networking firm yet another
tool in its march to become the Internet's most dominant destination.
And yet predictably, the new Facebook Places check-in feature has ignited
a new round of debate over whether the Palo Alto firm is doing enough to
safeguard its members' privacy.
Facebook Places began rolling out Wednesday night to the company's members
in the United States with an upgraded application for the iPhone and iPod
Touch that includes an icon that resembles a Google Maps location pin.
Launching the app lets members share their current location, which is
automatically plotted by their phone's GPS technology. They can tag
Facebook friends who might also be there and use a "Here Now" function to
see who else might be in the area.
Tapping into trend
caused technology pundits to declare startups like Foursquare and Gowalla
as part of the latest hot tech trend. This year, microblogging service
Twitter also launched a location-tagging feature to its tweets and online
recommendation service Yelp enabled check-ins on its mobile application.
But Facebook vice president Chris Cox said Places represents more than
just a game, because it uses virtual technology to connect people in the
real world. Over time, locations can accumulate stories and memories that
later generations can access, Cox said.
San Francisco's Ocean Beach, for example, could be tagged as the place
"where your parents had their first kiss," Cox said. "What starts to
happen is the physical reality we're in comes alive with the human stories
that we've told there."
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