Well it’s fair to say that recent Facebook announcement to add a localization services to their social media platform did create a buzz around the world wide web and offline too. Knowing that Facebook will now have the ability to not only track interests, “likes”, sexual orientation, etc. but also track real-time human behaviors with millions of people around the globe. Imagine the possibilities when you think about it one second. First, Facebook is darn good at crossing large quantities of data to offer really targeted advertising options to their clients, that we know. Now with Places, they will be able to add in a real added value by knowing where people hang out, eat, shop and with who they do that with. Sound scary? I don’t think so, this day and age as shown us that people are willing to provide that level of detailed info because they see the value of connecting, sharing and participating in such networks. Now we all know that Foursquare is having great success in doing that, but the difference here is the number of people involved and the interconnectivity with other Facebook apps.
We live in a very interesting world now days my friends and we are seeing unprecedented levels or interactivity between technology and humans or it may just be that people are no longer using technology to connect, they connect trough technology without even noticing!
I’m interested in knowing if you think Places is the next big thing and if people are going to continue using “smaller” company services like Foursquare and Scavenger? Don’t forget to leave a comment!
Footnote:
- See the Places promo video: Here
Good post Fred. I wonder what marketers can really do with all that data though. I’d be interested to hear your thoughts on my blog post “Watching Customers is not the Same as Listening to Them.” http://wp.me/pJfdj-mA
Thx Thompson! I think those data will enable marketers to know their “connections” better and to provide more relevant content. We already had the what, the when and now we have the WHERE. I found that to be very valuable for a company.
I’ll definitely will go have a look at your blog.
Cheers!