There’s a new feature on Facebook called “Places,” that allows you to share your location with your friends by checking-in at a location. You can even tag friends that are with you which frankly, is what I like most about this feature. Like other location-based platforms, you can see if your friends have checked in nearby – that’s happened to me on several occasions when checking in on Foursquare.
However, unlike Foursquare, Facebook Places doesn’t let you become the Mayor of a location which is really what I think makes Foursquare fun from a user’s perspective. You can win badges, oust the current Mayor, and if you’re lucky…take advantage of customer exclusive rewards like becoming the Mayor of your local Starbucks and getting a discount on your next cup of coffee.
I wonder what the future plans are for Facebook Places…Will it integrate with Facebook’s business pages? What’s their strategy against competitors like Foursquare and Yelp? I guess time will only tell.
For now, I’ll stick to my current guidelines:
- Default check-in: Foursquare
- If it’s a restaurant: Yelp
- If a friend is with me: Facebook Places
However, despite which platform I decide to use to check-in, the funny thing is, it’ll end up on Facebook anyway. 🙂
If you’re on Foursquare, be sure to add Heystephanie. Check you later!