Our friends at Business Insider let us in on a little secret – Facebook just unveiled a new feature called Place Tips that is essentially aimed to negate Yelp (hooray!) with location-based recommendations.
The idea behind Place Tips is simple and intuitive: when you’re standing on a street with ten enticing restaurants or even just near a location that Facebook thinks you might like based on what they know about you, a little pink notification will pop up on your News Feed. If you need help deciding which restaurant to go to, you’ll be able to sort through “place cards” that give you details like reviews, photos and posts from your friends referencing that location.
Facebook is making Place Tips a default mobile feature, so you will need to turn off your “Locations” settings if you’d rather explore the world without help from Facebook. Through the wonderful world of GPS and wi-fi, Facebook has the ability to keep track of where you are in the world. But don’t worry, using the feature will not show anyone else where you are. The most interesting part of Place Tips? It’s not actually an app.
The geniuses at Facebook felt a slight push-back from making Messenger and Groups into their own apps and they understand that Place Tips will get far more use if integrated seamlessly into the Facebook app. The truth is, people (myself included) hate switching between apps and making Place Tips it’s own app would hinder it’s ability to be more user friendly than Yelp or Foursquare.
Place Tips is currently in beta in high-traffic areas such as Central Park, Brooklyn Bridge, Time Square and the Statue of Liberty.
Will you make the switch from Yelp to Place Tips?