Facebook Places: Aiming their Sights on Google and Foursquare
August 19th, 2010 by
It looks like Facebook isn’t going to take Google’s attack lying down, and they’ve got Foursquare in their sights as well. They’ve just announced a new mobile application called Places, which allows users to check-in at various businesses they visit. Businesses can also claim their listings and post additional information. Does all this sound familiar? It’s essentially nothing more than a combination of Google Places and Foursquare.
So what’s the interface going to be like? It’ll display a map, a list of friends currently checked-in, and an activity stream with friends who have checked in there in the past. The best feature, in my opinion, is the ability to post stories or reviews to your wall by clicking the “Share” button. I assume it’ll also post a blurb on your wall when you just check-in as well, so it’s like word of mouth but on a much grander scale.
It’s currently available only in the United States to those who have the most current version of the iPhone application, or on touch.Facebook.com. It’ll be available to users of other mobile devices in the future, so all you Android users can stop whining!
So will it be able take down Foursquare and Google Places? Yes and no. Yes, it can take down Foursquare but Google Places will not be defeated. It’s too valuable on an SEO level to go by the wayside. Foursquare, on the other hand, is still a little too new. It‘s a David and Goliath battle… if David were a baby. It’s a genius move on Facebook’s part. It’s taking a popular social media tool and easily integrating it into their program. As much as I like Foursquare, it’s just another app to use on my phone. If I can do it all on Facebook, I will. Sorry, Foursquare!
I can’t say that I didn’t see this coming. While this is sure to eat in for Foursquare’s potential audience, I do not see Foursquare losing any ground with their loyal network of power users — it has some 2.5 million users today. But these are super engaged users — much more so than Facebook’s 500+ mil — who knows how many are truly active.
Facebook’s sheer size and scale is going to make Places successful. It’s kind of like the generic DVR versus TiVo — it’s good enough, however there will always be people who want the premium product.
I predict that Foursquare will continue to evolve and grow to be the category leader in “check-in”. Their clean and beautiful implementation of specialty badges, coupons and value added incentives is their competitive advantage — they will only become stronger if they find ways to add new features (photos) and leverage their strengths by focusing on restaurants, bars and entertainment destinations.
Wow, that’s good to know. Had no idea FB had launched this. It’s interesting to see the way companies are jumping on the Foursquare bandwagon. Yelp.com has a mobile app (which, personally, I find to be FAR superior to Foursquare), Google launched Places, and now FB is on board. Wonder when our mobile phones will automatically start checking us in at places, when we walk through the door. Only a matter of time before we get our RFID implants, right?