If you’re still using Facebook and haven’t abandoned ship due to the numerous privacy concerns that have given journalists and bloggers volumes of content lately, you may be interested in a new feature the site is planning to launch this month. When Facebook came out with its Internet-wide “Like” option, and partnered with hundreds of Web sites to make it work, some said the social networking site was taking aim at Google. Now? Look out Foursquare and Gowalla. Facebook has set its sights on you. Foursquare and Gowalla started out as frivolous social games people could install on their mobile phones to “check in” and let all their friends know where they were and what they were doing. All. The. Time. It’s even possible to link these check-in updates to your Twitter account, so users were able to broadcast their whereabouts to hundreds or thousands of people at the same time. This brought about a preliminary round of privacy issue stories and posts, and even a semi-spoof site called Please Rob Me, which now seems to be, for the most part, defunct. The site says they feel they made their point, but it’s possible the Foursquare made their own point through their lawyers. That’s just my speculation. Anyway, now all eyes are on Facebook and their continuing crusade to abolish all forms of online privacy, if there ever was such a thing. The company is furthering that endeavor with a new feature that will allow users to display their location in their status updates. On the surface, this may seem like a cool feature. Instead of just saying, “I’m at McDonald’s trying to order off their secret menu,” you’ll be able to automatically share your exact location. Facebook hasn’t yet revealed the details of how this will work, how it will display, or whether it will be opt-in or not. We’ll just have to wait and see. That is, if Facebook doesn’t self-destruct before then.
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