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Facebook is entering in to competition with the likes of Foursquare, Yelp and Google, by offering location-based tips within the user’s News Feed.
The Place Tips feature, which begins a trial in New York City today, aims to offer interesting information and recommendations as well as collating a range of relevant photos and posts from the area.
The idea is to surface posts from your friends who’ve already checked in at the venue, attraction or restaurant for as long as you’re in the vicinity.
The feature will suggest landmarks like the Brooklyn Bridge, Central Park, Times Square and the Statue of Liberty, with the recommendations appearing at the top of the News Feed.
As well as using the GPS and Wi-Fi tech inside your smartphone, Facebook is also installing additional hardware at some of its preferred location across The Big Apple.
These Bluetooth-powered beacons will be installed at eight New York businesses, including a book store, an ice cream shop, a burger restaurant, a hotel and a bakery.
Read more: Facebook now has 1.39bn users
Facebook says its trial is targeting New York because of the challenge of identifying locations in the densely packed city. iOS users in 'The City That Never Sleeps' can give Place Tips a shot now.
"We want to be really confident if we’re going to show you something at the top of your News Feed," Facebook’s Mike LeBeau told The Verge. "As we started building this, we realized we need more confidence to show you the right and relevant things."
