Facebook overhauls Nearby to include recommendations
Facebook has updated its Nearby service to alert users to venues of potential interest in their vicinity based on their social profiles and recommendations from their friends.
The service is initially offered on the Android and iOS version of Facebook’s mobile apps and also let users rate venues and share them with friends with the social network also pledging to add info from third parties in the near future.
The staggered roll out of the feature began yesterday and was announced via a blog post penned by Josh Williams, a Facebook product manager for location & events, who formerly headed-up Gowalla, a check-in based game purchased by Facebook last year.
“From the app menu, open the tab to find local spots your friends have recommended, checked into, or liked. If you’re looking for a place to eat, choose a category like restaurants to see what’s nearby,” reads the post.
“When you find a place that looks interesting, tap to see info like friends who’ve been there and business hours.”
The move comes just over a year after Facebook rolled back its Facebook Places Deals service, which let brands offer users incentives for checking in to their venues, a services that had earlier been experimented with by brands including Debenhams, O2 and Starbucks.