by Rob Sears.
Yesterday, Facebook announced their newest application - Places. With Places, users can "check in" to various locations in their area and let friends know about it. Users can see which of their friends are near, and possibly make plans to meet up or invite others along. The concept is nearly identical to existing geolocation-based services like Foursquare and Brightkite, except Facebook is launching Places with a considerably larger user base. All one needs to get started is an iPhone and the most recent version of the Facebook application or a mobile phone browser that supports HTML 5 and geolocation.
This announcement finally brings an end to the months-long, Facebook/geolocation rumor mill. Many industry analysts were surprised earlier this year when such a feature wasn't even mentioned at the F8 conference, and anticipation of the service has been building ever since.
Of course, no one has been watching the announcement more closely than Google, who announced their own "Places" application last September. Google's version has pages for individual businesses, including maps, street-level photos, reviews and more. With millions of advertising dollars at stake, Facebook's announcement ups the ante for the two rivals.
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