Location, location, location
Facebook devotees in the UK have finally got their hands on Facebook Places enabling them to check in to venues and share their location with friends in real time.
It also lists nearby businesses and local attractions specific to each user's current location.
The service was rolled out in the US last month and arrived in Japan last week but UK users can now access the service through the Facebook for iPhone app or though the Facebook mobile site touch.facebook.com on other smartphones.
While insurance companies have warned people off from declaring their whereabouts via Places and there have been widespread privacy and safety concerns, Facebook said the service is opt-in so users can only be checked in to a location if they have specifically authorised it.
"Also, unlike other ‘always on' services, Facebook Places does not store record a user's location unless that user takes a conscious action - such as checking themselves in or accepting a tag from a friend," according to a statement.
There are options in the site's privacy settings that allow users to ban friends from tagging their whereabouts and the option to only share locations with certain people.
"Privacy is really important for us; check-ins are defaulted to friends only (unless your master setting is everyone) and minors will not appear in posts or check-ins to anyone but friends, you can also always remove any check-in from your phone or on the web," Facebook said.
While some commentators believe Places will kill check-in services such as FourSquare and Gowalla, others predict checking-in will become second nature to a lot of social networkers, supporting different services, plus allowing them to evolve and thrive.
Michael Sharon, product manager for Facebook Places, told the BBC that the company is currently developing BlackBerry and Android-specific Places apps and said other services like Foursquare will be able to integrate with Places.
