Facebook will soon launch location-enabled status updates. I think we’ve all known this was coming, but will it really matter? Facebook has the largest and most popular social network, but I don’t think that automatically means they will overtake services like Foursquare and Gowalla. Weren’t people saying Yelp was going to kill Foursquare when they enabled checkins?
As early as this month, the social-networking site will give users the ability to post their location within a status update. McDonald’s, through digital agency Tribal DDB, Chicago, is building an app with Facebook would allow users to check in at one of its restaurants and have a featured product appear in the post, such as an Angus Quarter Pounder, say executives close to the deal.
I don’t know about you, but I haven’t really been itching to be able to attach ads to my location check-ins. This is social media, so the focus should be on Me, not some message being pushed by the establishment I’m at. If they want to get a piece of the location action, I’m gonna need them to get their own account. On the other hand, if I’m getting compensated with free stuff or cash, maybe me and Micky D’s could work something out.
Facebook says they don’t usually monetize any new feature immediately, so the check-in ads may not be showing up any time soon, if at all. It will also be interesting to see how, exactly, Facebook chooses to implement check-ins. Google and Twitter are both probably tracking your location and including it with your updates right now, but you wouldn’t know by the methods they’re using. It’s more of a passive system and, well, there are no badges (don’t act like you don’t like badges).
Privacy is also an issue here. There are people that I have friended on Facebook that I may not want to share my physical location with. That’s not what I joined Facebook for. This could end up being yet another change that current Facebook users do not want or won’t understand.
Are you ready to share your location using Facebook?