Location-Based This Facebook
The rumor mill is buzzing with Facebook news and how the company might be launching location-based features soon, maybe as as soon as Wednesday of this week.
I say to Facebook, please, don't do it. We already have Foursquare, Gowalla, Yelp, Loopt, Brightkite, et al. The list, to a certain extent, goes on and on and I don't think we need more of the same. What we do need, are location-based services that truly improve our lives or consumer experience.
Let me explain.
My beef here is that if (or when) Facebook launches a location based service, this type of social functionality will go mainstream.
Facebook is the largest social media networking on the planet and sets the pace for how media content is delivered and digested. Lots of content creators — including news organizations — follow along with what Facebook does mostly because of the volume of users it has.
Imagine news organizations building in location-based content services that we, as consumers, can feed items into — video, Tweets, etc.
To a certain extent, CNN does this with their iReport, but I'm talking about unfiltered consumer-based news that's peddled by major news organizations — and considered "real" journalism.
To cover news 24/7 and in real-time, news organizations are never going to be able to compete with civilian journalism — not until they can bring down the editing wall to a certain extent.
Additionally, location based services will dig deeper and deeper into our personal lives and in real-time. Go to a local restaurant and get hit with three iAds with coupons to other local retailers. It's only going to grow more and be more obtrusive into our lives and I think that Facebook will be the catalyst.
What do you think?
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