Facebook Inc.’s has launched a new feature called Place Tips, which promises to deliver location-based content to users’ newsfeeds.

Facebook’s product manager Mike LeBeau writes that the new feature “will show you fun, useful and relevant info about the place you’re at.”

Place Tips is an opt-in service that uses a combination of Wi-Fi and GPS data to pinpoint users’ locations. Facebook then uses this information to show users posts by friends about nearby locations, as well as nearby photos, restaurant menus, upcoming local events and more.

Facebook has also begun testing Bluetooth “beacons” at select locations that will feed the app even more detailed information about the area. These Beacons are currently being tested in several businesses and tourist destinations in New York City, including The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Dominique Ansel Bakery, Strand Book Store, the burger joint at Le Parker Meridien Hotel, Brooklyn Bowl, Pianos, the Big Gay Ice Cream Shop and Veselka.

“We want to be really confident if we’re going to show you something at the top of your News Feed,” LeBeau said, explaining why the beacons are only available at a few locations for now. “As we started building this, we realized we need more confidence to show you the right and relevant things.”

Local advertising

While location data and the new Facebook Bluetooth beacons will help users find nearby restaurants and attractions, they can also be used to deliver location-targeted advertising much like Twitter’s recently announced postcode targeting ads.

The beacons could also be used to clearly demonstrate the effectiveness of these location-based ads by determining whether a user who saw one of the ads visited that business afterwards. A solid success metric like this would be a huge boost to Facebook’s legitimacy as an advertising platform for non-web businesses.

Facebook is quick to point out that location data is opt-in for their application, and users can turn the feature off whenever they want. Users can also turn off Place Tips itself while leaving location data on, and they can even hide tips for specific locations that they no longer want to see.

You can learn more about Facebook Place Tips on the official help page.