{"id":51842,"date":"2017-11-11T05:53:48","date_gmt":"2017-11-11T05:53:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.biphoo.com\/bipnews\/?p=51842"},"modified":"2017-11-11T05:55:11","modified_gmt":"2017-11-11T05:55:11","slug":"facebook-relaunches-events-app-as-facebook-local-adds-bars-and-food","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.biphoo.com\/bipnews\/technology\/internet\/facebook-relaunches-events-app-as-facebook-local-adds-bars-and-food.html","title":{"rendered":"Facebook relaunches Events app as Facebook Local, adds bars and food"},"content":{"rendered":"

Facebook relaunches Events app as Facebook Local, adds bars and food<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n

Facebook relaunches Events app as Facebook Local, adds bars and food:- Bad news for Yelp and good news for nightlife lovers. When you want to go out, it doesn\u2019t necessarily have to be to an event. So to help you discover bars, restaurants, and nearby attractions, Facebook is rebranding its standalone Events app as \u201cFacebook Local\u201d. Launching in the U.S. today on iOS and Android, Facebook Local combines events and permanent places to a single search engine powered by Facebook\u2019s 70 million business pages plus reviews and friends\u2019 checkins.<\/span><\/p>\n

Facebook Local product manager Aditya Koolwal tells me the goal was to \u201cMake it a lot easier to do certain kind of looks ups that are very common when making plans with friends.\u201d Easier is key, considering Facebook Events never made it above #139 on the social networking app charts and SensorTower estimates it only got 100,000 downloads.<\/span><\/p>\n

For now, he tells me Facebook Local won\u2019t feature ads from businesses and events trying to stand out, but says \u201cwe\u2019ll think about advertising way further down the line.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Back inside Facebook\u2019s main app, the Nearby feature that\u2019s buried in the More tab is getting rebranded as \u201cLocal\u201d too. But there, it\u2019s still separate from Facebook Events. While Koolwal says he hasn\u2019t thought about it, the Facebook Local app could one day be a good home for Facebook\u2019s Nearby Friends, which shows real-time locations of your friends similar to Snapchat\u2019s Snap Map. Facebook\u2019s recently launched Order Food feature could also be a smart addition if you and friends decide leaving the house is too much work.<\/span><\/p>\n

Facebook Eats The Internet: Chapter Yelp<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Facebook first launched the Events app just over a year ago to help that one friend who rallies everyone to go out and figure out where. It was useful for seeing Event invites and wall posts in one place, and seeing nearby happenings on a certain day. But it was a bit buggy, redundant with the main Facebook app\u2019s event feature, and ruled out places that were fun every night rather than just when they threw parties.<\/span><\/p>\n

Facebook Local could help you pick between great bars on a block, and find out if one has a band playing. Here\u2019s how the app works:<\/span><\/p>\n

Facebook Local\u2019s home page shows shortcuts to see nearby restaurants, cafes, drinks, attractions, and more, as well as where friends and people you follow go. You\u2019ll see a calendar of your day\u2019s Events, a Trending Events feed, guides to music, nightlife, art, and other happenings, and options to see everything going on certain days.<\/span><\/p>\n

A Discover feed shows top suggestions and what\u2019s popular with friends. And a Calendar tab lays out all your Event invites and RSVPs, and you can import your phone\u2019s calendars to have everything in one spot. If you\u2019re travelling, Facebook Local lets you change your location to see what\u2019s up in another city. For now, you can\u2019t order directly from Local like with the Facebook app\u2019s Order Food feature, but restaurant Pages do sometimes include a link to a deliverer like Grubhub.<\/span><\/p>\n

Even if you don\u2019t use the standalone Facebook Local app, you\u2019ll still benefit. Koolwal tells me Facebook and Local share the same code, so when it improves something like the ability to search for \u2018cappuccino\u2019 not just \u2018cafes\u2019, those \u201cenhancements reflect back to Facebook immediately.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

If Facebook actually promotes the Facebook Local app, it could become a legitimate alternative to Yelp or Foursquare, using both Facebook\u2019s wide range of local business data with your social graph and user generated content like photos and reviews. That in turn could convince businesses to invest more in their Facebook Pages, turn all their offline happenings into Facebook Events, and seek more social content from their customers.<\/span><\/p>\n

Facebook\u2019s new mission is \u201cBringing the world closer together\u201d and few things do that as vividly as nightlife. The company is often criticized for supposedly isolating people, but there\u2019s no replacement for Facebook Events. When I hear people considering deleting their Facebook account, it\u2019s often Events that they stay for. By bundling these with local business listings, Facebook could finally give Events the spotlight they deserve.<\/span><\/p>\n

Source:-\u00a0https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/2017\/11\/10\/facebook-local\/<\/span><\/p>\n

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