Count me as one of the many people who think that the only significant thing announced at today’s Facebook event was the Deals program. It provide incentives to use Facebook Places in the form of special offers you get when you check in while using Facebook. So you go to The Gap, check in, get a code for a free pair of jeans.
My first instinct when I heard about Facebook Places was that it would never work. Foursquare has fast become the go-to brand on location based services and that’s just not what Facebook does. But this has me rethinking that position. If you’re already on Facebook, this is easier. I had signed up for Foursquare a while ago but almost never used it. I went there today and remembered why. The interface isn’t intuitive, the whole thing is confusing, you have no idea what to do unless someone has shown you or you’ve really spent time on it.
But Facebook is native language to people now. If I go to a bar and can get a free beer for checking in on my phone using a Facebook app I have on there already, hell yes. I’m not ready to declare Foursquare dead just yet but it feels a bit like WordPerfect did way back in the day.
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