• Aug 18th, 2010
• Posted by Ron Schott
• Posted in Facebook, Foursquare, LBS, Location, Uncategorized

Note: This was written in real-time and might not read like our normal stuff. Apologies for the errors and no apologies for the timeliness.

Foursquare users around the world have been hearing that Facebook would roll out a location-aware feature, but today is the day they finally get to see what it’s all about. In a short time (I’m writing this in real-time) the world will tune in to Facebook’s newly-launched livestream application and hear, straight from Palo Alto, about the new location-based elements of Facebook. Since we want our readers, friends, and colleagues to be informed not only about the news, but what it means for them, we’re staying late here at SCG to bring you the coverage…

4:44 p.m.

I just finished writing that opening paragraph, so there’s nothing to new report other than the fact that there are a ton of people in the chat asking when it starts.

4:50 p.m.

I submitted a question through the “Ask a Question” box, but it just disappears and doesn’t give any indication that it’s been received or anything. So, we’ll see if they answer my question I guess.

4:55 p.m.

In order to match the location shift (so subtle, Facebook) the journalists on location went through, I moved to Feran’s desk across the pod.

5:11 p.m.

Randi Zuckerberg was audible for a second, but then went away. Now she’s back. Looks like we’re ogin to hear from execs, then devs, then  a Q&A. The scene behind her looks like it could be filmed in a college dormitory common area.

5:13 p.m.

Worst. Hold. Music. Ever. Also, the furniture in whatever building there in looks it belongs on the front porch of someone’s summer cottage.

5:23 p.m.

Zuck is on stage! He’s talking about the tradition of launch nights being something bigger than an employee or partner event, but about the community (including journalists and other people). Now he lost his train of thought.

Talking about how Facebook works to create new tools on Facebook (no deadlines?).

It’s called Places and has been in testing for a couple months. Zuckerberg is telling a story about being out in Menlo Park with his GF and showing her how it works. His GF noticed that their friends were nearby and said “hey, let’s have dinner with them.” Wow.

Facebook’s location tools are about:

1. Helping people share in a social way
2. Connecting with others
3. Discovering new places

5:27 p.m.

Video about places which is very, very Apple-like. Lots of cool looking people connecting with other cool looking people. The word serendipitous has been used three times so far in this livestream.

A big emphasis put on creating a trail and having it for all time. Going back on your timeline and seeing what you were doing 10-15 years ago at a certain spot.

5:29 p.m.

Product manager for Places Michael Sharon is up on stage. The new features will be available on touch.facebook.com and a new iPhone application available later tonight.

Places are listed as what Facebook feels will be most interesting to you.

The general use of the application looks and feels a lot like Foursquare, Whrrl and Gowalla.

“It’s not about broadcasting your location to the world, it’s about sharing where you are with your friends”

Here Now is a listing of who is where you are at that time (friends and others).

5:33 p.m.

The Places addition lets users tag friends who are with you wherever you may be similar to tagging people in status updates.

Having tagging makes it easy to incorporate people who may not have a smartphone with them, but stil want to be a part of the story.

5:36 p.m.

Differing levels of security broadcasting levels “Allow” and “Not now” make it easy to change how you are sharing your info.

Separate privacy controls are available to change who can see your actions.

You have to be checked in somewhere to tag a friend there (so you can’t say your friend is at a strip club if you’re not there too) and you can always remove tags.

As a final kill switch, you can change your privacy settings to disallow all tagging.

5:40 p.m.

Not only is this a new application for users, it’s a new API that will be available to partners (read, write and search – in closed beta) like: Gowalla (surprise), Foursquare (wow, again) and Yelp! (remember them?), and Booyah (creators of MyTown). The Foursquare guy definitely took a bit of mic time and talked a lot about future things for Foursquare. Yelp will also be pulling your Facebook friends places into their iPhone application in the near future (tomorrow). Booyah is creating a new product called InCrowd which will be half-game half-social utility (built in three weeks) based on the Places API.

Check out the dev info here: http://developers.facebook.com/docs/#places

5:50 p.m.

Chris Cox (VP of Prod. Management) gets up on stage and makes a poor joke about sociology. Then actually breaks it down: home (where you wake up, go to sleep, where your family is, where you eat, and where you reflect on your day) work (the economic engine of society, where you work your brains and muscles, where you invest in creating something that’s greater than ourselves), the third place (the bar, the restaurant, the library, the street outside, the barbershop, the newsstand, the places where we go and share our lives with each other — the most-important). Oldenberg made a hypothesis that the technology of today is in danger of destroying the third place.

Facebook Places aims to be the opposite of that. “Technology does not need to estrange us from one another.”

Cox gives a story about what might come in the future and it seems pretty awesome: sharing stories, sharing memories from your friends and getting recommendations – our collective memory. OK, he just said “that’s dope.”

OK, this is getting a bit sappy… talking about our children visiting somewhere in the future and their phone letting them know that their parents had their first kiss there and shows pictures, comments, etc.

5:58 p.m.

Q&A time! Questions about privacy, monetization and more. I’m not going to write these out, but I’ll throw a link in here later if they release transcripts.

Holy cow, they actually have traditions that are pretty awesome. Gong. Launch switch. Watch the video and check them out!

That’s it!