Facebook Kills 'Places'

Facebook published a 1,200-word blog post yesterday detailing its latest privacy changes, but one little tidbit is just getting attention today: Toward the end of the post, the social networking site announced it will be “phasing out” Facebook Places, its Foursquare-like check-in service that debuted to much hype last year. But Facebook isn’t giving up on location-based services entirely; rather, it will now allow users to add locations to their posts via tagging.

Places never really hit its stride, the Huffington Post notes: By the time it had been out two months, just 6% of all Facebook users had tried it. But all those social Starbucks drinkers will likely be disappointed: Mashable reports that Starbucks is the eatery users check in at most often, followed, inexplicably, by Buffalo Wild Wings. Business Insider muses that this development appears to show that “Foursquare is winning the check-in battle.” But on TechCrunch, MG Siegler notes that Facebook is actually “doubling-down” on location now that it will be available in every post. (More Facebook stories.)