UPDATE: Facebook Places On a Slow Roll Out in India

UPDATE: Yup, it does look like Facebook Places is getting rolled out in India. We checked out the iOS and Blackberry versions of the Facebook app and saw Places in action, but surprisingly the Android app said it wasn't available in our region.

Going Places

Some iPhone users in India have reported being able to use Facebook's location based services, i.e. Places in India. Previously, this function was only usable in the United States, however, either Facebook's glitching or they're performing a slow roll out of Places. The function, however, only seems to be usable on iPhone apps and not Android yet. Either access Places directly through the app or go to touch.facebook.com via your phone's browser and connect to Places, if you're one of the few Facebook's decided to roll it out to of course. A tweet from @msigeek seems to confirm that the roll out is indeed happening.

Places is Facebook's answer to Foursquare and according to the same tweeter, Places seems to be better than Foursquare because you can have conversation threads on your check-ins. Also, unlike Foursquare, users can't just add places in Places, Facebook has to review them and approve of them it seems. Places will only truly be successful if restaurants and other 'locations' start introducing rewards for frequent check-in-ers. A few places took advantage of Foursquare's check in services and offered rewards for mayors but the enthusiasm soon died down. However, since Facebook is already a huge, established network, let's hope Indian places cash in on the check ins and start offering loyalty rewards.