Social Media News of the Day: August 19, 2010

Oh the “Places” We’ll Go!

The big and arguably only social media news today is Facebook’s arrival into the location-sphere with the release of Places. My inbox was flooded with articles about last nights’ announcement and the iPhone app that goes along with it (Blackberry and Android apps to come). By the end of the week, we will be checking in not only on Foursquare but on Facebook, checking out what friends are close by and becoming walking advertisements for all the companies we visit.

Facebook is undoubtedly the mecca of social media but one problem that the giant could face with Places is (drum roll please) PRIVACY! This has been an on-going issue for CEO Mark Zuckerberg and one that will no doubt reappear when people start posting their direct locations on the site.

This new feature is very similar to Foursquare in the sense that you check-in to locations, you can add a venue, share your location via Facebook and discover where your friends are checking-in.  Some differences are that in order for a venue to be seen by all users it has to be requested several times. Also, you can tag friends who are with you at your check-in location.

Currently, Gowalla, Foursquare, Yelp and a few others are partnering with Facebook on this endeavor. No one was too clear on what the partnerships entailed but what we do know is Foursquare VP of Mobile Partnerships, Holger Luedorf, has not even seen the application yet. What do you think about Facebook entering the geolocation world? Do you think this will cause all the other location-based companies to run for the hills?