What Will Facebook Be Announcing Wednesday? Location, Location, Location!

August 16, 2010 at 6:00 pm PT

Foursquare might want to stock up on the Mylanta on Wednesday.

That’s because a multitude of sources indicate that Facebook will finally be rolling out its own geo-location offering, and the date now looks set for the day after tomorrow.

In fact, BoomTown was just ginning up a post on the likelihood Facebook would be unveiling a check-in service this week when an invite to a “news event” at the social networking powerhouse’s HQ in Silicon Valley dropped into my email box.

The new feature–the development of which has been the biggest open secret in the digital space–has been a long time coming, as Facebook has noodled on how to incorporate the hot trend that was pioneered by Foursquare and other start-ups.

In fact, Facebook even considered buying the New York-based company before deciding to build largely in-house.

But fear not–Facebook’s service is likely to integrate other third-party services and give developers on Facebook’s platform geo-location capabilities.

Whatever the launch, I’m looking forward to seeing what they’ve got to show off–which is what the real news is–and assume it will be in line with Facebook’s more conservative and useful design ethos.

In other words, let’s hope I don’t need to be the mayor of anything to play, and–given Facebook’s privacy woes on many of its feature rollouts–I am not embedded with a geo-tag at the event so Facebook PR can keep track of me.

Here’s my invite, so tune in Wednesday for more:

You are invited to attend a news event at Facebook this Wednesday at 4:30 pm. During the event, Facebook representatives will provide an update on the service’s features and products.

Immediately following, there will be a community event from 6:00pm–9:00pm which you are welcome to attend at Facebook’s office at 1601 California Ave.

Please RSVP to me at your very earliest convenience.

What: Facebook Press Event

Who: Facebook executives

When: Wednesday, Aug. 18
4:30 pm–6:00 pm

And, if you want to know how Foursquare is going to fend off Facebook’s incursion, check out MediaMemo’s Peter Kafka’s video interview with founder and CEO Dennis Crowley here.

Tagged with: BoomTown, Dennis Crowley, digital, Facebook, Foursquare, geo-location, innovation, Internet, Kara Swisher, Peter Kafka, Silicon Valley, social networking, software

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http://technbiz.blogspot.com paramendra

Facebook could not have stayed away from the location space, but it has the option to do it right. http://goo.gl/fb/e9M4O
http://www.atlantajones.com Andrew Jones

I think Facebook will eventually do this, but it’ll be half-assed, like most of their services. But their huge user base will still make it the dominant power in the location space.