Will you share your location on Facebook?

Four weeks ago, the privacy problem of Facebook led to unexpected hot argument when Facebook first introduced “Place” function to the public in USA. Now this debatable new feature of Facebook has been launched in Australia. It was reported by news.com.au on September 30, 2010.
The author, Peter Farquhar, is a technology editor, using his professional angle to present this story. The image of new feature of Facebook application is presented at the very first of this article, giving the audience the concept of what this function is exactly. Then it simply introduces how to use “Place” on Facebook, clarifying that it is different from Foursquare by fully using the quotes from Facebook Places product manager. As I mentioned previously, the privacy issue may be led by Facebook Places product is an irresistible topic. The author also presents the debatable privacy issue by providing the quotes from Facebook that the default privacy setting would be to share with “friends only”. Finally, it largely emphasize on the strengths compared with other software, including Foursquare and Gowalla.

I suppose this is a good piece of news with well-organized structure, useful content and clear expression. However, for me, it is more like an advertisement to promote the new feature and attract public for wide utilization. In terms of public relation strategy, it is more focus on the publicizing product itself rather than public interests and news value. Another weakness can be seen is the length of this story. It runs too long with too many quotes and references. It may confuse the audience as hard to distinguish the point the author tries to convey clearly.

Source:

http://www.news.com.au/technology/facebook-launches-places-in-australia-not-identical-to-foursquare-at-all/story-e6frfro0-1225932299348