back to article Facebook Places checks in to UK

Facebook Places, a service designed to encourage users to publish their location, is available in the UK from today. It follows the US launch last month. The service is exactly the same in the UK as in the US. Users are invited to "check in" via their smart phone when they arrive at a new location. Facebook has bought lists …

COMMENTS

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    didn't take long

    I just logged in to find my brother had created a location called "the shitter" and asked his circle of friends and anyone within a 10k radius to "guess the number". Finally, the future has arrived.

    1. Just Thinking

      3, I would guess

      'nuff said

  2. Just Thinking

    Why would anyone want to ...

    Oh never mind.

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Why?

    Why would anybody think that anybody else is interestd in where they are?

    Monday - Friday I'm usually at work and even I'm not interested in knowing that and assuming I had a facebook account it would be of little use to them for targeted advertising.

  4. Evil Auditor Silver badge
    Thumb Up

    New perspective

    Haven't used Faecebook before but this Places thing seems interesting! I'm even thinking about an application which anticipates where I'm going and advices me on route changes based on where fewest Facebook users are.

    1. Stuart Castle Silver badge

      Hmm

      Perhaps that's a good idea for the next Tom Tom or Co Pilot update?

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Badgers

    For those that asked Why

    Because you forget the original point of Web2.0 and social media which is for the average joe to disseminate everything about their lives cause they think they are important and have a self inflated ego.

    The obvious advantage to the normal people is it means we know where all the nutjobs are and can avoid them.

    Could be a good gag, cheap mobile with GPS set to automatically report it's location to facebook on a regular basis, hidden in a taxi, then advertise you have money to give away, sit back and watch the media coverage of drones following a phantom round london or somewhere similiar.

  6. PReDiToR
    FAIL

    PLEASE BURGLE MY HOUSE

    I'm currently in Starbucks, using my smartphone. My laptop is at home, my PS3, my desktop machine, the DVR, car keys, and my motorcycle and summer sports car are in the garage.

    Here, look through my photos, you can see if you like the colour!

    Only ever post stuff you would like to share with your local junkie/car thief/burgler. One of your friends might be friends with them and let them use their computer. I've seen it happen.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      This

      ...could probably be combined with Google Streetview to highlight all unoccupied properties in a street. For too long burglary has been a retail operation. About time burglars modernised and went wholesale

  7. Phil the Geek

    The gnomes again

    1. Collect locations

    2. ?

    3. Profit

    1. djs

      Re: The gnomes again

      1. As you say

      Step 2 is a compound step:

      2a. Notice that every Thursday Mrs Jones takes the Jones children to "the park"

      2b. Notice that every Thursday at about the same time, Mrs Smith goes to "fleapit motel"

      2c. Notice that every Thursday Mr Jones also goes to "fleapit motel"

      2d. Conclude that neither want Mr Smith nor Mrs Jones to learn of this

      2e. I think you can see where this is going.

      3. Profit (again, as you say).

  8. Tigra 07
    FAIL

    Congratulations facebook!

    This doesn't really make this paedo-proof as the majority of them will have their victims as friends well before they suggest meeting (i would imagine, how else would they see thier pics?)

    Facebook has just found a way to make robbing a house and grooming kids easier, congratulations Facebook!

  9. Stone Fox
    Thumb Down

    just one question

    How do I turn this shit off?

    1. \\\

      In true Facebook style, it's buried deep in the settings

      After a quick look, I think it's

      - Account > Privacy Settings

      - Click customised settings.

      - Change "Place I check into" to Custom (only me)

      - Untick "Include me in "People here now" after I check in"

      - "Friends can check me in to places" > Edit Settings > Disabled

    2. Test Man
      Stop

      It's already off by default...

      ... but follow the poster above's advice to find it within your Privacy Settings. It was added there more than a month ago.

  10. David 61
    Thumb Up

    As a serial stalker...

    ...This is the best thing since sliced bread...

    1. Tigra 07

      What?

      Surely as a serial stalker the best thing since sliced bread is night vision goggles?

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        I can smell her chips...

        ...ouch...

      2. Jolyon

        (̅_̅_̅_̅(̅_̅_̅_̅_̅_̅_̅_̅_̅̅_̅()ڪے

        A cereal stalker might use sliced bread to camouflage himself amongst the toast.

    2. TeeCee Gold badge
      Coat

      As a cereal stalker....

      ....This is the best thing since Cornflakes.

    3. Guido Esperanto
      Joke

      as a

      cereal stalker, surely the best thing since sliced bread are 24hr shops?

  11. DamianJauregui
    WTF?

    Total FAIL

    Excellent, whilst all my stuff is being stolen from home, because I am in Starbucks on my iPhone, but hey, I am only there for so long because, using localised/targetted marketing, I got a free muffin!

    FAIL, my house is being stripped clean because a) I have spent the last year documenting every new cool toy I bought with pics on facebook b) one of my 'friends' was smart enough to push me an advert offering me free cake with my coffee in Starbucks!

    1. Charles Manning

      Obvious solution

      Friend your car. You'll then know where it is and can get it back.

  12. Colin Guthrie
    FAIL

    Privacy settings are confusing

    Hmm,

    Privacy settings:

    Places I check into * Friends Only.

    * (and people nearby).

    So, erm "Friends Only" in this instance means all the people "nearby" too? Not nice.

  13. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    When ya live in the sticks

    I have gowalla.com, foursquare.com, iruelgames.com on my iphone. Where I live they just highlight how isolated I am and I feel sad.

    The internet started out as a bit of a haven for the anonymous. Its seems to be have turned into the complete opposite where ego means like twitter ya gotta be followed and known, and now that can happen in real life.

    Internet users , either narcissistic content submitters or voyeuristic content readers.

  14. Martin Kirk
    Thumb Down

    Will the madness never end?

    Yet another reason never to touch Facebook.

  15. Slappy
    FAIL

    (untitled)

    ,<Sigh>

    Just stop all this 2.0 bobbins.

  16. Anonymous Coward
    Joke

    Hi darling, I'm on the train...

    ... having my identity stolen, I'll be back in time for tea...

  17. fixit_f
    Flame

    Hmm

    I'm a working IT professional. No really I am, not a teenybopper, not an ego inflated extrovert who wants everyone to know when I'm having a dump or a wank, just a normal bloke who understands the way the internet works and the pitfalls that are out there. I like Facebook. I think the format of it and the way it works is great, so I treat it as an email replacement tool - and a much richer one at that. Back in the day myself and my friends would check email, now we chat and organise through Facebook. Before email we used mobile phones. Before them we used to have to organise times and places and just be there on time. Before that - well I'm not old enough to remember.

    Nights in the pub, kitesurfing sessions, days out blah blah you name it in terms of bringing people together Facebook delivers and in wanker management language "facilitates". This stuff you could do before through email or phone or word of mouth, but those approaches were clumsy and arcane by comparison and with Facebook you can do it with pictures and as other people who were involved remark on stuff you get a narrative. This is why Facebook (in terms of the concept) is better than email, it gives you flexibility. Also, in years to come when I'm old maybe Facebook will still be there and I'll be able to look through the archives and reminisce about my life when I was young. And see what I was doing day by day - like a diary that you don't have to be arsed to sit down every day and write with a silly pen and paper. Honestly, in terms of the format, I think it's great. Don't overuse it, don't get obsessed by it, lock down your privacy settings and don't reveal too much - beyond those common sense rules, it's a bloody good tool.

    Accepted wisdom is that nothing is a freebie. Having said that, I've had a gmail account since they first opened for business and nothing bad has ever happened from Google having an email log of my entire life through several years. You know what? I think they have bigger fish to fry, so details of who I went for beers with or who I was shagging in the mid 2000's aren't that interesting in their scheme of things. They just got paid to provide me with a rich email interface with a few adverts, which I ignored. Perhaps it really is just about pay per click and these things are genuinely harmless freebies subsidised by advertising wankers. They offer rich interfaces, work well and for the savvy are just good tools that deliver genuine value to life for little or no downside?

    So no, I won't be publishing my location anytime soon. But Facebook is a bloody good tool, and the naysayers might want to consider the idea that they are burying their heads in the sand - just like my grandparents, who avoid all the benefits of the internet just because they read in the paper that it could be "dangerous" sometimes. You carry a mobile phone every day that tracks where you are, and you probably have for one or even two decades. When was the last time that information was used against you? And as an example wouldn't that info be a useful alibi if you were called upon to determine your location in court if you were accused of something you didn't do?

    If the founders of Facebook and Google want to use the information I've imparted freely (consisting mainly of my social calendar and variegated silly thoughts) against me then good luck to them. I have nothing to hide. I ignored their adverts but I found their tools genuinely useful. Slick advertising twonks in sharp suits paid for it, but I ignored them.

    Just a thought. In 20 years I may eat my words, but somehow I just don't see it, large corporates have better stuff to do.

  18. thedeegee

    Great!

    Friday: XXXX is at the Ministry of Sound

    Saturday: XXXX is at Brixton Academy

    Sunday: XXXX is at the pub

    Monday: XXXX's boss: You certainly like to party, don't you? *adds to potentialredundancies.xls*

    You want to do something or go somewhere that you are perfectly entitled to but might be frowned on by your squeaky clean corporate employer or 'the establishment'? Then don't subscribe to this dangerous, regressive BS.

  19. Stuart Castle Silver badge
    FAIL

    What is the point?

    I am a happy facebook user.

    I have been a happy facebook user for years, and I suspect I will be for several more years. However, I have this places thing disabled because I can't see the point.

    If anyone (whether they are friend or not) needs to know where I am, I am quite capable of telling them, and I do.

    I don't need facebook (or foursquare or any other service) to do that.

    Similarly, if I need (or want) to know where my friends are, I am quite capable of asking them.

    In the meantime. I now get a facebook page that is filled messages saying "so and so has now checked in at so and so station" and, TBH, it's irritating. It's almost as bad as the constant Farm/Fishville/insert random facebook game updates that tell me a friend has bought a new sheep, or found a sea horse.

  20. Winkypop Silver badge
    FAIL

    Why are people so thick?

    I mean.....

  21. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Privacy again..

    So if you've avoided Facebook because you don't like Mark Zuckerberg to have your details and friends list on his database, he'll get them next time you host a party.

    Facebook's business model is based on harvesting people's personal information, with or without their consent, and they're always looking for new ways to do it. Who can stop them?

  22. John Tserkezis
    Thumb Up

    I can only see good things come of this.

    For Facebook.

    Everyone else can get screwed.

    And deservedly - when the creator calls you a f*cking idiot, and you still come back for more, I mean it *is* Facebook after all.

  23. Anonymous Coward
    Grenade

    Security Threat

    It would seem that the British Army is having a fit over this and LF G2 "recommend" that all military and civilian personnel disable this feature as it's a security threat, they even very thoughtfully sent out a little e-pamphlet on how to do it.

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