“We
want to be really confident if we’re going to show you something at the top of
your News Feed. As we started building this, we realized we need more
confidence to show you the right and relevant things”
Facebook Product
Manager Mike LeBeau, commenting on the Facebook Place Tips feature launched on
Thursday January 29th2015
Facebook, on the heels of its Earnings Call
that indicates that 84%t of its 890 million daily users are on smartphones as
noted in “Facebook
mobile users hit new highs, revenue jumps”, published January 28, 2015 1:12
PM PST by Ian Sherr, CNET News, has decided to take yet another stab at Yelp
and TripAdvisor.
This
as they're in the process of testing out a new Feature called Place Tips as
reported in the article “Facebook
dives deeper into Yelp, Foursquare world with Place Tips”, January 29, 2015
10:03 AM PST, by Donna Tam, CNET News.
So
says their Press Release explaining the planned new feature titled “Introducing
Place Tips in News Feed”, published January 29, 2015 By Mike LeBeau,
Product Manager, NewsRoom.
Facebook Place Tips dips into Open Graph
data culled from postings on a Facebook
Business Page for a location i.e. a Restaurant or a bar as well as photos posted
by your friend who have visited that same place.
Once
you've enable Facebook to track your
location via GPS, whenever you visit the place your friend have been, Facebook will serve up not only the Facebook Page for that business but also
the related posts and Pictures from your friends.
Currently
the feature only works on the Apple iPhone and is only available for New Yorkers
only, sorta like Foursqure’s swarm 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”.
Also
it determines your location based on a combination of Cellular, Wi-Fi and GPS
Networks to determine your location.
Still,
Facebook Place tips will fail just like
the Poke App and then Slingshot, being slowly beaten by Snapchat and Microsoft
Upstart Xim as opined in my blog article
entitled “Microsoft
launches Microsoft Xim, Snapchat's true Competition - How Slingshot backfired
and Microsoft Xim makes Conscious Shared Slideshow Experience Fun”.
Facebook Place Tips
sounds like Foursquare – Why a Friends Nearby + Facebook Places will fail like
SlingShot
Facebook Place Tips feature is basically a
lot like Facebook Places launched in
December 2014 as reported in my blog article
entitled “Facebook
relaunches Facebook Places – Return of Facebook Places heralds Yelp and
TripAdisvor Killer putting Foursquare-Instagram LBS deal in Jeopardy”.
It's
also kinda similar to Facebook Friends
Nearby launched in April 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”.
I
suspect Facebook may actually be
grasping at straws here based on the comments by Facebook Product Manager Mike
LeBeau in the article “Facebook
Place Tips will try to put useful info about your location right into the News
Feed”, published January 29, 2015 01:00 pm by Nathan Ingraham, The Verge, quote: “News Feed today is a
pretty good tool at connecting you to friends and news. But if we’re Facebook
and our job is to connect the world, what else do we want to connect you to?”.
Possibly
the slow uptake of Facebook Friends
Nearby as well as Facebook Places may
have prompted them to merge the two. Facebook, albeit they’ve noticed more
revenue from Mobile users, probably realize that not all their Mobile Apps are
pulling their weight.
Thus
don’t be surprised if Facebook Friends
Nearby and Facebook Places eventually get the axe
later in 2015!
Facebook ignoring
Foursquare Swarm – Facebook Place Tips is a Geo-Location Stalker tool
However,
they need to take a page from Foursquare's book, who recently revamped their App
to have a separate Swarm App that's a recommendation engine based on Reviewers,
not friends as noted 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”.
Simply
put, having friend recommend where you should eat and drink is really a recipe
for disaster. True friends in real life don’t stalk each other, even on Social
Media. We’re not really interested in where you‘ve been or what you may have
been doing!
Effectively
Facebook Place Tips, in an attempt to
palm itself off as a LBS (Location Based Service) like Friends Nearby, can
become a stalker tool as a friend in a Social Network does not guarantee that
they’re also your true friend in real life.
Hopefully
too, Facebook won't sell your
information and travel habits to advertisers, as this is actually what Facebook Place Tips actually sounds like.
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