The bigwigs
Facebook Places
Last August, the social network finally introduced location-based functionality with Facebook Places, a feature that allows users to check in via iPhones and Android devices, and lets people know where they are, what they're doing, who they're with, and leave brief comments.
While Places has the potential to become an important player -- its availability to the social network's 550 million-plus users alone assures at least that much -- its barebones feature set, which includes the recently introduced, but lackluster "Deals" incentive for merchant discounts and bargains, pales when compared with dedicated services like Foursquare, which emerged as early as early 2009.
Last updated January 04 2011: 12:26 PM ET
