Facebook And Twitter Geolocation Sharing Features About To Go Live

Posted Wednesday 10th March 2010 by Allison in Social Media.

Facebook and Twitter, the two biggest social networking sites in the UK, are both about to switch on a location-sharing feature that will allow friends and followers to see where you are in the world.

There is no need for alarm; the features will be optional and so anyone not wishing to share their location will not have to do so in order to continue using the sites.

Facebook’s geolocation feature is reportedly due to go live next month, whereas Twitter’s is expected anytime this week.

The new features are part of an ongoing attempt by social networking sites to turn their success into advertising revenue. There are more than 400 million users of Facebook worldwide, and approximately 100 million of these access their accounts and update their statuses from mobile devices. In the context of these figures, it’s easy to see how these sites will be able to use the new features to allow regional business advertisers to target users.

Twitter is currently allowing 3rd party client users to attach locations to tweets, and on Tuesday in the wake of Facebook’s revelation of its geolocation sharing plans, the site switched on its geolocation feature for a brief period, before switching it off again. This indicates that it is testing the water and is about to launch the new feature at any moment.

Facebook location sharing

As yet, it’s unclear how the Facebook location sharing feature will work. If Tuesday’s glimpse is anything to go by, however, Twitter’s will feature maps overlaying tweets, both individually and on the main stream, along with names of places and users’ locations.

There are obvious benefits to users with location sharing. They can get region-specific information about their location; social recommendations and such like, as well as relevant local news.

But as with any location-sharing developments on the internet come privacy issues, as Google Buzz discovered only too well when it launched in February. Other downsides currently being discussed in the industry include the possibility of a bombardment of unwelcome local advertising once a user has announced his or her location, and paranoia about would-be criminals being alerted to an instance when a user is away from their home, which could indicate an empty premises ripe for burgling.

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