Facebook may add location based check-ins this month
Location based services such as Foursquare and Gowalla have been making a name for themselves in the location based services area of social media for a while now. With all of the buzz around these companies, is it really any surprise that someone like Facebook would finally take notice?
It has been rumored for some time now that Facebook is working on adding check-ins to locations to be shown as status updates. According to Advertising Age, the service may launch as soon as the end of this month, and it will facilitate Facebook users knowing where their friends are whenever they check-in.
The apparent big difference between the Facebook check-in and the other services such as Foursquare and Gowalla will be that eventually the social network will be injecting advertising into the service. Apparently a deal has already been struck with the McDonalds fast food chain, and it will work in such a way as when someone checks in at one of their locations, the company logo will be inserted along with a mention of a product such as the Angus burger.
Facebook is claiming that the brand name connection won’t show up immediately upon launch, but it remains to be seen if users will take to the idea of their social interactions being used as a form of brand promotion and advertising without their knowledge and permission. Considering that the top social network boasts a user base of nearly 450 million, it is sure to be used a pretty large number, but will it be enough to take down the likes of the established ones that aren’t inserting advertising?
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May 28th, 2011
Awesome been waiting for this for months now