Where in the World?

In my adventures with locative services online, I have fallen into a setback: all these services require a Smartphone! To be fair, I knew this would be a problem from the beginning. My phone, while really cool in its own right, is not quite on par with the iPhone and company. But

does that really mean I can’t play with locative services too? I'd like to think not.

So I start my adventure with a familiar platform: Facebook. This summer Facebook launched its own take on locative services, called “Facebook Places”. Facebook Places, like many similar services, was designed for Smartphone use, but it also allows for old-school computer check-in.

As I see it, there are other benefits to Facebook Places over other services, too. First, it capitalizes on your existing friend base. If the goal is to interact with the greatest number of users, Facebook certainly provides the largest audience base. I could confidently say that more of my friends use Facebook than any other locative service, or many of them combined. No other platform would allow me to reach as many of my friends.

Further, I can tag any of these friends in my Places check-in, even if they don’t use Places. In my first check-in, I tagged my friend Craig, who didn’t even know what Facebook Places is. This makes Facebook Places interactive to a greater degree than other services.

Plus, Facebook Places is free. I didn’t really want to pay for a service I could only half-use.

Given that introduction, allow me to outline my first Places experience. First, since I was checking in via my laptop, I was directed to Facebook Touch. I understand this to be the online mobile app equivalent (correct me if I’m wrong).

I didn’t have to create the check-in since I am not the first to do so. Facebook effectively creates a “Like” page for the location (in my case, the Student Activity Center). Note that although I was not the first check-in, I’m only the second. If this works like Foursquare’s mayorships, I’ll own this place in no time.

Finally, Facebook shares your check-in by publishing it on your profile and the mini feed. Now all my friends know where I am, sweet!

Voila. Facebook Places. I’m not sure that I’m sold with this service. I’ll give it a go, but I might try something else too.