"Hello? Is It Me You're Looking For?"

Lionel Richie sings to me in my head, but why?  Because I'm reading CNN.  I can see you're not quite following me so let me take you with me - literally.  This week, CNN announced Facebook's new plans to include a "place" feature so, in theory, you can share your location with your closest 500 "friends" or whomever you have on your page.

The hows and whys have not been released.  The concept has both pros and cons, that I would hope are being carefully thought through prior to the release.  For the few whom have only their trusted inner-circle as friends on Facebook, the new feature would allow them to keep everyone in the loop - although, sometimes I don't want everyone I know to know where I am at all times (sometimes I just want to get my Starbucks at the drive-thru in peace).  Of course - much more of a concern, for those who "friend" every person who sends them a request or "friends"every person they've met in the last fifteen years, it could be highly dangerous to give out your location regularly.  Ask Paris Hilton how safe it is to put your location out on the Internet, and you'll learn it got her robbed - repeatedly.  And this all comes on the heels of the death of Ashleigh Hall, and Facebook telling the United Kingdom they will not put a panic button on their page for victims to report sex offenders.  If I'm running to the store, I really don't want everyone to know I'm not at home or knowing where I am.  And women especially don't need to be telling people when they are alone and children and youths using Facebook really don't need to be giving out that information, in my opinion.

On the lighter side, it would be fun to be able to update a select handful of people where I am and what I am doing so that if they are in the neighborhood they could swing by.  If Chris and Ray are out shopping, and I'm getting a bagel - I'd love for them to join me - most of the time.  Great to be wondering around Walmart and get a heads up that someone I would love to see is on isle 15.  Only the upcoming few weeks will be able to tell us if there are control features in place to limit our whats and wheres to the whos.  But as with everything, it will be up to us to make wise decisions and up to parents to protect their children.

But if you have your employer on your Facebook page, you may want to make sure you don't get caught visiting the competitor on your "places" update because, well, that's another story....



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