Facebook, Inc. has announced a major upgrade to the notifications tab in its mobile app that will see the feature become more than simply one that informs users when others have liked or commented on posts.

The new notifications tab combines the existing update data provided in the old tab with what Facebook describes as “important information that they can easily see, all in one place,” in what can only be described as being Google Now-like.

Included in the new notifications tab are friends’ milestones, such as birthdays and life events; sports scores and TV reminders based on the pages users have liked, and reminds of upcoming events that users have joined.

In addition to the core new notifications Facebook is referring to as cards, users will also be able to add additional, optional information that is tailored for delivery based on where the user is at a given time using the Location History feature in the Facebook app.

Options there include the ability for users to see things that are happening in the local community; weather updates including current conditions and severe weather alerts; movies playing in theaters near the user; and interestingly given Facebook has long wanted to push into using location data, recommendations of nearby places to eat including links to the places’ Facebook Pages and reviews.

A More Useful Notifications Tab on Mobile from Facebook on Vimeo.

Users’ current notification settings will not change with the roll out of the new notifications tab, and they can be adjusted at any time using the settings options with the Facebook tab.

Google Now much?

If you missed the aforementioned mention, the new version of Facebook notifications screams of one and one other service alone, and that’s Google’s Google Now service.

In rolling out the new notifications service, Facebook doesn’t seem to have any shame in taking on the might of Google either, and has even called the new notifications “cards,” the exact same term Google uses in Google Now.

Up front it should be said that Facebook’s new notifications tab offers nowhere near the functionality that Google Now currently offers, but that’s beside the point: it’s a definite move, a start if you like, in that direction and all comes back to keeping eyeballs on the one app and the company that Mark Zuckerberg built wants exactly that.

These new personalized options are being gradually rolled out to users using both the iOS and Android versions of the Facebook app in the United States only in the coming weeks. There is no word on if or when the feature will be rolled out internationally.

Image credit: Facebook