can you here me now?
The predictable entry of Facebook into the space previously known as “check-in” has caused an appropriate amount of stir. A careful entry, for very good reasons, Facebook Places is a decidedly simple and utilitarian approach in its first step into location sharing. While anyone who reads my blog undoubtedly views check-in as a product with considerable history, it’s worthwhile keeping in mind that only ~2% of Facebook users have ever used any of the current generation of mobile check-in products.
I'm here with all my friends! (from Barfly)
tag, you’re here
Facebook views the success of photo tagging as one of the most brilliant product moves behind its’ growth. Continuing to seek out and expand on personal hooks that take it deeper into the life and times of users is a central goal of FB’s new product development. The feature of letting any person check-in their friends to a Place (the way you can tag people in photos) is the most controversial of the released features. IMHO, Facebook is very unlikely to back off this functionality unless user backlash becomes a ton more prominent.
While the first thing I did when the product lunched was turn off the ability for friends to do this, I think it’s a very smart feature. I learned awhile ago that the slope towards open life sharing is downward facing and indeed slippery. Facebook gleefully applies just a little more grease with every product release.
From a product viewpoint, the potential for place-based gathering and collaboration is tremendous, and bringing active friend sharing into the mix is a high quality product move – no matter how much I personally view some elements to have stepped over the line [notably, the pre-selected opt-in for applications your friends are using to have access to your location status.]
fun vs. function
Dennis Crowley is right in calling Facebook Places boring, when viewed side-by-side with the engaging experience of Foursquare. For me, Foursquare was JUST beginning the get interesting – it was beginning to reach a level of critical mass to occasionally find a friend unexpectedly nearby, and the content in “tips” was shifting from lame to mildly interesting.
I think it’s already game over for friend discovery. However, the current user experience of FB Places for attaching comments and “stories” to a place is pretty stale. The “inside Facebook” user experience of Places may be an impediment to success, particularly for such a new visual user experience.
So, will FourSquare’s ability to engage consumers via competitive and fun user experiences be sufficient to sustain its’ growth and create the preferred place for check-in? FourSquare will have to step up their game on user engagement (over monetization). How new users introduced to location sharing via FB choose to adopt or ignore the service is mission critical.
Facebook’s Places API presents a double-edged sword in this equation. On one hand, it allows the aggregation of all check-ins to Facebook’s Places, effectively giving FB the trump card of check-in data consolidation. On the other hand, it opens up a way to “layer” the fun and (potentially) commercially interesting activities on top of location notification to friends outside of Facebook Places.
turning off your friends
Google researcher Paul Adams’ epic discourse on real life social networks nailed what I consider to be a significant shortcoming of the current generation Places check-in. I have a couple of hundred Facebook friends, probably only half of which live in my state, and of those only a fraction of which could give a rat’s derrierre about where I am located day by day.
I’m interested in a more personalized way of sharing my location with friends and businesses I like (and trust); there are a group of friends who I’d like to know where I am when I choose to share it. Until now, the concept of grouping friends into sub-segments seemed like an intangible effort with little or no return. Perhaps this changes that dynamic.
So for now, Places misses the mark for me as a blunt instrument that fails to capture the nuance of personal location sharing.
*as a sidenote, I’ll blog separately on blog.closely.com on the business impact of Facebook Places.
