Facebook Places Marks Entry Into The Location Game

It’s been talked about for quite some time, and now it’s finally happening.  Facebook will allow users to check-in at locations straight from Facebook.  The social network is partnering with the major location-based services–Foursquare, Gowalla, Yelp, and Booya (makers of MyTown)–to bring check-ins to the masses.  Well, at least the masses that have smartphones or other touchscreen devices.

The service is called Facebook Places, and will be available via both the iPhone app and touch.facebook.com.  Android, WebOS and BlackBerry users will have to be satisfied with touch.facebook.com for the moment.  It will roll out gradually, but should be reaching all Facebook users soon.  Presumably, it should work either way for those who use the iPhone app, it would be rather senseless to have an option for an app that you can’t use yet.

Places, like the other services, will allow you to check-in to locations with friends, and allow other friends know where you are.  The updates are, by default, only shared with friends.  Users can tag their friends in check-ins, and only their friends.  Only friends will see check-ins, though users can change that setting.  Users also have the option to remove tags from check-ins or to remove a check-in at any time. {Mashable} That will come in handy for the people we know who lock down their accounts at the first sign of an embarrassing photo tag.

Places will let merchants set up specials for users who check-in, just like other networks.  What it doesn’t offer, however, is a gaming element like you’ll find in Foursquare and Gowalla.  So, no badges or mayorships to be had on Facebook.  Those badges and mayorships can be shown on Facebook, however.

Facebook has announced that with the Places app will come the read API for services {TechCrunch}.  The write and search APIs are currently in closed beta, but should be released soon.  Hopefully by that time Foursquare (or a third party developer) will create a Facebook app that will allow users to check-in on one service and have it pushed to the other.  The gaming elements of Foursquare are fun, but with only 2.5 million users it’s not likely that all your friends will be using it.  With 500 million users, it might be hard to find friends who don’t use Facebook.  Combining the two means we’ll have friends who might see what we’re doing, in addition to fun gaming elements of Foursquare.

While there’s been plenty of displeasure with Facebook’s privacy settings, hopefully the friends only feature will help with some of the safety risks of location based social media. Provided you’re not already friends with someone who’d rob you, of course, the integration could help in making sure that you’re only updating a select group of people about where you are.