Yesterday Facebook announced another feature the vast majority of users weren’t requesting because they like to keep adding crap to our daily diet of updates and photos of cats.  Get excited, because you can now check into events on Facebook, just like you weren’t checking into places. Your event RSVP on Facebook wasn’t enough data for them to process and collect.
However, if you can start checking into this events and places it got me thinking about what other things you could check into.
I don’t know about you, but I can’t wait to check into friends and groups.
Do you want to check into everything? Do you want everyone to know where you are at all times, what you’re doing and who you’re with? Check-in to the comments and let me know your thoughts on this madness.
Why is checking into events so horrific? I think it’s a pretty good idea. For Facebook events we always have the “attending”, “maybe attending”, and “not attending”…with this new feature you can actually see who says they’re attending and who actually is…which is kind of neat. I hate it when I am looking forward to seeing someone at a party and then they don’t show up…even though they’ve clearly stated “attending”…and I feel even worse when I am the one doing this
But Katy, wouldn’t you agree that people that you are looking forward to, “check in” by actually showing up? If you *see* them, they are checked in.
Yes, but I’d rather get a notification on my blackberry about ________ showing up, rather than pay a $20 cover to see that they didn’t actually end up showing up. Kind of dramatic I admit. Stalking 101.
But that’s making the presumption that _everybody_ chooses to check in. I’m (just barely) trusting Facebook in assuming that this check-in thing is a voluntary feature, so if whoever you’re looking for doesn’t use it, then you’d miss them anyway.
Meh. Isn’t Foursquare enough?
I think a Facebook check-in feature should be at the bottom of the list of improvements. My Facebook page still crashes now and then because of all the changes they’ve gone through. Maybe they should fix the old stuff before piling up all the new stuff. But that’s just me
http://www.facebook.com/GetSocialnomical
Rob just checked in to the internet.
Rob just checked in to his apple at lunch.
Rob just checked in to checking in with his check in checker. Check.
Rob is the mayor of the world.
I just finally got on board with the whole FourSquare thing, and I’m only mildly interested. I don’t really see why it has caught on so well. Just as long as we keep providing quantifiable data for someone, anyone to use, I guess it will keep going.
I started checking in on Gowalla because it was featured at SXSW. After accidentally leaving the Twitter button on during a busy weekend, I was ashamed at the Gowalla spam in my Twitter stream. It’s a fun game to play with other people who are in the game but the vast majority of your friends and colleagues do not care where you are and in fact, if you are having a bunch of fun, they will just be discouraged or angry. So, yeah, it’s really for the marketers.
…and if all this checking in slows down the responsiveness of Facebook for what I consider legit uses, it’s just going to make me mad.