Facebook Places is now available to the UK user base. This service allows users to check-in at locations such as restaurants, cafe’s, bars, etc. This check-in then displays in the recent activities feed on the user’s Facebook profile. The Facebook team is quite about this development as reported in the telegraph:

Michael Sharon, the product manager of Facebook places, said: “Our products are modelled on how people are already using the site… We realised people were already posting where they were and who they were with every day.”

Talking at a UK press conference this morning, he said that the company had three distinct goals for Places. One, that it the tool makes it easy for people to share their location and who they are with. Two, people can use Places to find friends who are located nearby and three, the tool helps people discover new places around them.

After the trend of social networking sites, location- based services seems to be the new fad. One after another, most news seems to revolve around location based services and developers. However, critics think that Facebook Places won’t find great popularity among UK Facebookers. The slow adoption is linked to safety precautions. This concern is reiterated by opinions on the increase of home owners insurance because of the general trend of social networking & location-based apps.