Facebook Place Tips to compete with Yelp
Just imagine you are new to a city and are out in the market wondering where to get the groceries, where to go for a movie or a perfect cosy dinner and have no one to show you around, this is when Facebook’s latest place recommendation app Place Tips will come in handy. It will be similar to Yelp and more or less be compared to Yelp soon. Place Tips will show the useful information in users’ News Feed itself about the places in their vicinity. We will throw some more light on Facebook’s latest feature “Place Tips”.
What is Place Tips?
Place Tips is the latest feature added by Facebook which is very much similar to Yelp. The question arises that Is Facebook experimenting too much? Yes, but it makes a tough competition and the users are to be benefitted from it. It will show at the top of Facebook users’ News Feed when they are at a museum, market, restaurant and will give them suggestions based on previous reviews and ratings given to that place by their friends. It includes pictures of food, videos, event related stories etc.
Availability of Facebook Place Tips?
Place Tips is currently available for iPhone users and that too in limited places like New York limiting to specific areas like Statue of Liberty, Times Square, Metropolitan Museum of Art and more. There is no comment from Facebook about the availability of Place Tips on Android devices and at other places in New York city and ultimately in different countries too. At the moment, Facebook is keen to make things right with Place Tips instead of going big as there is a lot to lose if something goes wrong with Place Tips and Facebook would not want to jeopardise their reputation.
Features of Place Tips
When you tap on the feature, you will be able to see a list of cards with information about the place where you actually are. If you want to see Place Tips, only then you will be able to see the posts and pictures of the places that your friends have shared about a particular place. The best thing about Facebook Place Tips is that you can turn on or off this feature anytime you want directly from your settings and can even hide tips about the places you do not wish to see. For this, you will have to give Facebook the permission to access your information like profile and location.
How Place Tips work?
Facebook accesses your information like your location using Wi-Fi, cellular networks and Global Positioning System. Facebook is still testing these signals in various places where Place Tips is available like Times Square, Central Park, the Statue of Liberty etc. At some places, Facebook is also testing Bluetooth beacons. It sends a signal to your phone which helps to know the right tips for a particular place.
We are eager to get a first hand experience on Facebook Place Tips irrespective of the reviews as Facebook is eager to provide a tough competition to Yelp and it would be interesting to see what is in store for this new yet exciting feature from Facebook.
Keval Padia is the founder & CEO of Nimblechapps, a fast-growing mobile app development company. The current innovation and updates of the field lures him to express his views and thoughts on certain topics.