How much do you want your Facebook friends to know about you? Well if you are among the hyper connected crowd, you may just want to let your friends know about your exact whereabouts. That’s exactly what Brightkite’s new Facebook Connect integration lets you do. Brightkite is an extremely simple application that lets users post location-based updates. You can simply check in, post status updates, or upload images, all of which are location specific.
As soon as you check in you can have your Facebook status updated or a message posted to your profile news feed. It’s an interesting concept but I’m not sure that most Facebook users will be updating their friends with their location. There has also been speculation that Facebook will integrate location features directly into their Facebook application.
Competition in the mobile location based services (LBS) area is fierce. A couple weeks ago I wrote about the potential for Facebook to buy Loopt. While I doubt such an acquisition would take place, it’s clear that LBS companies are a hot item nowadays. Brightkite is an interesting application in that it essentially mimics a lot of the features that were included in the now failed Dodgeball site that was acquired by Google a couple years ago.
The site has gained a relatively significant amount of traction among social media enthusiasts but I’m not quite sure how far it has spread beyond those individuals. According to Compete.com, the service has been hovering between 150,000 and 200,000 monthly active users. It’s too early to determine what the impact of Facebook Connect will be but so far around 100 people have integrated the service with their profile.
My guess is that number will jump significantly in the next few days. Do you want to be updating your friends with your whereabouts? Is this too much information to share with your friends?
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Brightkite Newsfeed Notification
Brightkite Location Screenshot
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Another simple tool for updating your Facebook status with your current whereabout:
http://www.facebook.com/apps/application.php?id=3...
Comment by Jakob Keller — December 30, 2008 @ 7:05 am
I find applications like Brightkite to be useful at say a conference where you want all your friends or new interesting people to meet you at a restaurant on bar…but do I really want my friends to know my location at other times? probably not. My stalkers, however, might love it…
Comment by Leora Israel — December 30, 2008 @ 9:40 am
If Facebook ever lets you *really* differentiate between groups of friends, then yes. But letting all 500+ friends know my whereabouts? No way.
Comment by Jasmine Sante — December 30, 2008 @ 12:29 pm
NOPE !! I TELL THEM U MIND U OWN BUSINESS,AND KEEP IT TO YOURSELF ABOUT MY WHERE ABOUT …………….!!
Comment by Louis — December 30, 2008 @ 12:53 pm
i think they should buy them, integrate it into the fb iphone app, etc.
its not about all of them knowing all the time though, its about selectively sharing your whereabouts.
this makes facebook even tougher to ever leave.
Comment by Brian Breslin — December 30, 2008 @ 1:18 pm