Facebook app adds Places location sharing


Fans of Gowalla and Foursquare may be interested to know Facebook has directly integrated a new location feature. The feature is now available with 3.2 of the app, which hit iTunes overnight. The Places feature is currently only supported in the U.S. on the iPhone, although an HTML5 version is available as a Web app. As of this morning, it doesn't appear to be working yet for us. Facebook says more countries and devices are expected to roll out over time.

Location is an emerging social interaction that likely has a bright future for commerce. For example on Foursquare, merchants can offer specials to shoppers nearby and reward repeat visitors. While informative and entertaining, there are still privacy concerns. On the bright side, those who enjoy reading torrents of narcissistic location sharing posts can look forward to these things filling up their news feeds.