Facebook to launch new location features as soon as next month

Facebook is reportedly planning to launch a new feature allowing users to share their current location with their friends in the upcoming weeks, with an announcement most likely at their F8 conference early next month.

The New York Times reports that the Facebook is still tossing up how to actually incorporate the location-based features, but it's likely the company will choose to attach the users location to their status update, similar to what Twitter does with its geolocation feature. According to the report, Facebook has been working on location-based tools for the past year or so, but refuse to launch it until they feel it's ready for the mainstream audience. This fits with rumours over the past year or so that Facebook has been searching for the right way to add location features into the service. Adding location tools to Facebook has some serious privacy implications, which is most likely why so far Facebook have avoided anything to do with location. That said, and as the NYT points out, a change in the Facebook terms of use late last year confirmed whatever service the company does provide, it will be entirely opt-in, and will be treated 'like any other content you post to Facebook". With the recent launch of the website "Please Rob Me," displaying user's publicly available location data to the entire world in an effort to demonstrate just how vulnerable sharing where you are can leave you will also likely be taken into careful consideration by Facebook. Interestingly sources close to the NYT have also suggested that the company isn't looking to compete with location-based startups such as Foursquare or Gowalla, instead the focus is providing location-based advertising to compete with companies like Google and its large user base of small business advertisers. 2010 has been dubbed the year of location, and so far its living up to all of its expectations. Foursquare and its competitors have all seen substantial growth in popularity, sealing major deals with companies in the United States.