Privacy is precious to all of us. Remember those panic filled seconds when you realised that unless you amend your Facebook privacy settings everyone could view/use/abuse them? Remember rushing to click ‘Do not use for advertisements’ or ‘No’? Remember those annoying little adverts in the corner of your Facebook pages asking you to ‘like’ something because a friend did? That was then, now Facebook has found an even better way to ‘connect’ its 500 million or more users by Facebook Places!

As Facebook is always trying to connect people—old friends, colleagues, people you meet on the bus/cafes/Sunday bazaar. It does so by letting us upload pictures, post on walls, updating out status and now, geo-location services i.e. Facebook Places! So now people on your friends list will know the what, where, how and who of everything you’re doing. With the help of this application Facebook is helping give local businesses a boost—who are salivating at the prospect of being able to advertise directly to passers-by.

The ability to directly advertise their product and services is an advertiser's dream—it targets people with personalised content wherever they are. Hopefully, as the add-on gains popularity, the company hopes that the local businesses will start paying to promote their products/services by using the site’s advertising system.

http://www.facebook.com/advertising/?campaign_id=402047449186&placement=pf&extra_1=0 (a link to their advertising guidelines) http://blog.facebook.com/blog.php?post=403570307130 (a link to their role of advertising)http://www.facebook.com/ad_guidelines.php (more guidelines) Facebook launched Places last month with great fanfare. According to Product Magager, Michael Sharon, “Everything happens somewhere. Maybe it’s a new restaurant, a beautiful hiking trail or an amazing live show. Starting today, you can immediately tell people about that favourite spot.”

At the moment, Facebook Places is a functional application in the US. The company is testing waters in its home market first, and only for certain smartphones, including the Apple iPhone. It is also being cautious about privacy, laying out a long list of ways users can avoid having their whereabouts broadcast to the world.

In today’s tech savvy world—Facebook seems to have hit the jackpot! Potential advertisers should appreciate the Facebook Places product as it creates more ways for them to promote and grow their business. “By giving your potential customers the ability to check in at your business, you give them the power to tell their friends about your business,” states Sharon on the website.