August 19, 2010

Is there any one part of The Internet that FaceBook doesn’t want to completely control or render obsolete in its wake? As I’m sure most of you know, the social networking giant (and subject to a movie highly-anticipated by yours truly: The Social Network), when not harassing its users with Farmville and Caféworld updates, intends to put its finger in every piece of the digital pie.

Yesterday FaceBook launched a program called, simply, "Places", a location-based check-in similar to Foursquare, Gowalla, and the like. Essentially it’s making a move to not only control the Internet completely, but to document, catalogue and compile all the comings and goings, whereabouts and interactions of its users.

“Places” takes a departure from typical “check-in” applications in the sense that not only will the service provide its users with a way to comment on their current location, but to share pictures, status updates, and messages from it which will eventually become aggregated around them creating not just a map of where people currently are or have been, but a sort of collective memory of everything that has happened at that location.

Explained by Christopher Cox, FaceBook’s vice president, the idea is that twenty years from now our children might check-in at Ocean Beach, SF and they will be able to see that this was the place their parents shared their first kiss. An interesting concept until you take into account the amount of emotional damage that could be caused by checking into a place where, say, you and your jerk ex-boyfriend once happily sipped lattés while listening to Neon Indian. But that’s besides the point.

What FaceBook is trying to do with “Places” is, in fact, a unique way of tracking your offline world, online, and using it to share stories and memories with other people. This is what separates it from the likes of Foursquare and Gowalla who are based in the moment, ie: “I’m having a burger at A&W right now” as opposed to “I ate a killer burger at this A&W here three weeks ago and Joey spilt his root beer on my new Uggs. Here's a picture!”. The idea is to chronicle our interactions in a three-dimensional way, not just through “flat” updates.

In addition the site is offering its own check-in as well as assimilating those from third parties –such as Gowalla, Booyah, and the reluctant Foursquare. What that means for these companies is that with basic check-in functionality available through FaceBook they will be forced to develop and tack on new features to try and keep consumers interested, potentially cheaping and taking away from the initial experience; these stand-alone companies have, essentially, become FaceBook Apps.

So is it a good thing? In reality, it’s just more of the same. Foursquare’s motto for the last year has been “technology can bring us together, not alienate us!” so it's nothing new. The only difference between Places and anything else out there right now is that what was essentially a single user experience has become more of a collective experience, and an imprint is left behind of the people who were there. The service, much like with its competitors, is what the users choose to make of it.

What is worth paying attention to instead is the aggressive nature with which FaceBook is tackling these innovative companies; typical Silicon Valley etiquette (to quote Mitch Joel) is to purchase a company and leave a few employees around to stay in everyone’s good graces. FaceBook on the other hand is on a mad buying spree (they unsuccessfully tried to buy both Twitter and Foursquare once they had started to gain popularity). So what to do if you’re a social media monstrosity who can’t have what it wants? Well, if you can’t buy’em out, push ‘em out.

FaceBook: can haz-ing ur internetz since 2004