Facebook Places is in the news since it launch yesterday, its popularity has rubbed off on Foursquare , who have yesterday seen a highest number of signups, thanks to Foursquare and its ilk, location based services have been around for quite some time now, even Yelp.com has joined the fray, nevertheless, this feature has now got tremendous exposure with Facebook’s 500 million user base.
If the location based feature of Facebook Places catches on with the company’s 500 million users, Facebook could be getting access to a wealth of of local business listings that advertisers and users will love to access. Google has built out a database of local business listings tied to its Google Maps service that gives someone searching a variety of results to browse. Businesses are encouraged to claim their listings in Google Places and to add more details ( Web sites, hours, menus, etc). Facebook Places is a similar idea with a social media color . Facebook users can “check in” to an existing list of nearby locations from their mobile phones or add new listings themselves, sharing that activity with their friends.
