Facebook today moved in on territory dominated by the likes of Foursquare and Yelp with an updated Nearby tab that will let users find restaurants and other locations in the vicinity.
The social network's Nearby feature got a boost on iOS and Android, which Facebook said will "make it easy to discover new places your friends like."
From the left-hand menu, users can now open the Nearby tab to find area hotspots that friends have checked into, liked, or recommended. For specific locales — like somewhere to eat or sleep — the option includes categories like Restaurants and Hotels. Upon landing on a specific place, tap the location to see who has been there, and restaurant hours.
Once you've discovered new places to visit, share them with friends by rating or recommending the locations. By doing so, your own suggestions become more personalized, Facebook locations and events product manager Josh Williams said in a statement.
"If you have a Page on Facebook with a location, your business has another way to be discovered by Facebook's 600 million-plus mobile consumers," Sue Young, a Facebook product marketing manager, said in a blog post.
Businesses looking to ensure better Facebook traffic can update their Page to include all basic information, Young suggested, including address, store hours, phone number, and other details. Also, updating the category into which the business falls helps it appear when people search for a specific type of industry.
"This is an early release and there's lots more to do," Williams said. "Results will get better the more people use Nearby, and we'll continue to improve it based on feedback." The team also plans to add information for various places from third party services in the "near future," he said.
The update is available today to all iOS and Android users in the Apple App Store and the Google Play store.
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