TechCrunch’s MG Siegler had a busy weekend. In a nutshell, he reported that by reviewing the code of the touch screen version of Facebook it was “confirmed” that Facebook’s location service was indeed set to become a reality. In his first post from Sunday he reports

Code doesn’t lie.

Over the past several weeks, there’s been a lot of speculation about Facebook’s location functionality. At least part of that speculation can end now. We now know what Facebook is planning to launch with regard to location shortly, because it’s right there in their code.

Read the post in its entirety to get the full scope of what was revealed and what the service may ultimately look like and how it may offer other location based factors (Like altitude, heading and speed? What the heck are people doing when they check in these days?)

His second post from Sunday was the confirmation that, yes, Facebook was officially going to introduce their service but they went out of their way to deny any initial involvement with marketers. It reads

As I said earlier tonight, code doesn’t lie. Facebook has now confirmed their location-based feature, which is apparently due to launch shortly if the code found on their touch.facebook.com site is any indication. Of course, they only confirmed it so they could clarify something else.

“There are currently no plans to add marketing partners to this product. We may consider working with marketers to enhance the experience in the future, but have no plans to do so at launch,” a Facebook spokesperson tells us in response to our story. You’ll notice two key words in there, “product” and “launch.” So Facebook is acknowledging the “product” that we found. And you have to believe they wouldn’t bring up a “launch” or know details about it if it weren’t happening soon.

All this says really is that when launched there will be no marketers involved at that point but the likelihood that they would follow is still there. Also the AdAge report of last week could still be accurate around McDonald’s and Facebook working together on this service.

Facebook would not confirm the timing of the launch but now that the ‘cat is out of the bag’ so to speak there will likely be more hype and momentum leading up to the actual roll out. Gee, it almost seems a bit too cozy doesn’t it but hey, Facebook would never do anything to manipulate anything for anybody now, would it? No way! They care too much about what others think and how they are perceived by the public, right?

Join the Marketing Pilgrim Facebook Community