“Facebook
Places is a page that allows you to search for publicly-available info about
cities, even if you are not logged in. Results will include publicly shared
photos, reviews and posts on Facebook to help you find popular places to visit.
Results will be customized for people who are logged in to include posts that
they are in the audience for”
Facebook spokesperson
explaining to CNET News what Facebook Places is all about
Foursquare
isn’t the only company gunning after Yelp’s crowd with their relaunched
Foursquare App as explained in my blog article entitled
“Foursquare
splits into Foursquare and Swarm - Twitter-eqsue Restaurant Recommendations
while Tracking Friend's Feeds and Plans as the Real Beat Comes Alive”.
Facebook
has now relaunched Facebook Places Page
that allows you to search Facebook for Restaurants and Bars and great places to
hang out located in Cities all around the world as reported in the article “Facebook’s
new Places page treads on Yelp's turf”, published November 13, 2014 7:49 AM
PST by Lance Whitney, CNET News.
Apparently
it draws on the analytical power of Facebook Open Graph that they rolled out
back in 2012 as explained in my Geezam blog
article entitled “Facebook
to introduce #Hashtags with emoticons, monetizing FB and making Open Graph
Search Practical” to determine which places are most popular dependent on
the traffic data for the official Business Facebook Pages.
 |
It's
really more of a Browser tool than a Search engine, in that case, and it’s
quite useful, albeit under populated, listing some of the Major cities around
the world but not all of the hidden gems you'd know if you travelled on foot.
When
I entered “Kingston” as a search term, it oddly redirected me to “Kingston,
Jamaica” instead gave me New Kingston and even suggested Vineyard Town, Trench
Town, Rollington Town and Norman Gardens as potential hotspots. Oddly, no Major
tourist town are listed, or even Montego Bay, Jamaica’s Second City!
Apparently
Facebook Places Page has got a
little Grassroots and Street Cred in their search results, making me like it
more despite the sparseness of the listing as not every Jamaicans’ Restaurant
or Bar has a Facebook Page.
 |
Still,
it found most of the Facebook Pages of the places I knew, making it really more
of a tool for Tourists and not for Jamaicans who know great places to eat.
After all, most Jamaican who eat out don't waste much time taking pictures and
making comments on the Social Media pages of these Restaurants as we might not
known if one exists, or even bother to search.
Facebook Places Page is just a
collection of as many pages that exists of Business in cities around the World based
on the location data that has accumulated over the last three (3) years.
That’s
is, since their first attempt at beating Foursquare and becoming Yelp back in August 2010
as chronicled in the article “Facebook
unveils location-sharing feature 'Places'”, published August 18, 2010 5:03
PM PDT by Josh Lowensohn, CNET News.
History
lesson time, dear reader…..
Facebook relaunches Facebook
Places – Foursquare-Instagram LBS deal in Jeopardy with Return of Places
Since
March 2014 Facebook appeared to be making plans to power the “name this
location” button with searches from their recently relaunched Facebook Places Page as stated in
the article “Facebook
Places Replaces Foursquare in Instagram Test”, published MARCH 27, 2014
02:33PM EST BY DAVID MURPHY, PC Magazine.
Foursquare
is still vulnerable, as they only have some 45 million subscribers, despite
this being just a test runs noted in CNET's article “Instagram
test locates you without Foursquare”, published March 25, 2014 10:59 AM PDT
by Jennifer Van Grove, CNET News.
Foursquare
Location Database powers Facebook owned Instagram, which has some 200 million subscriber.
That's a significant amount of revenue to lose, especially as via the
interaction with Facebook's Instagram subscribers, they have a better idea of
popular venues that users frequent, valuable data for their newly minted
Foursquare App.
Currently,
Foursquare database will name the place at which you took the photograph in
Instagram. If Facebook switches back to Places, which Foursquare competition
killed off back in August 2011 as stated in the article entitled “Foursquare
wins major victory with death of Facebook Places”, published August 23,
2011 3:44 PM by Sean Ludwig, VentureBeat then
we may be seeing Facebook attempt to clone Foursquare once more.
It
may, to some extent, hurt their partnerships with other companies that license
Location Data from them, such as Microsoft, who in January signed a US$15
million deal to utilize their Location Databases in their Bing Searches as well
as augment their Windows Phone Operating System as reported in the article “Microsoft Invests
$15M in Foursquare Location Data”, published FEBRUARY 4, 2014 03:38PM EST BY STEPHANIE MLOT, PCMagazine.
Now
that Facebook Places Page is alive and well again, it’s only a matter of time
before they integrate it into Instagram and then filter it down into their
various Apps such as Facebook's Nearby Friends App launched earlier in May 2014
as described in my blog article
entitled “Facebook
launches Nearby Friends feature - WhatsApp VoIP and Oculus Rift VR Wearable
Computing Takes flight as FB look towards the Future in the Year of the Horse”.
Still if you’re a travelling to Jamaica for the first time,
it’ll be great if you could visit eateries in Rollington Town or Vineyard Town
and not just New Kingston or even Port Royal!
Here’s the link:
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