Facebook and Twitter are preparing to flip the switch on features that will allow you to share your location with your protagonist at any time . Facebook is reportedly revving up to bring in the feature , while Twitter is ready to activate the changes on its site any minute now .

Facebook will add friend location information starting next calendar month , accord to a reportinThe New York Times . To be stick in at the F8 developer conference in April , Facebook status geolocation will enable you to share with your friend the locating from where you accede your update .

There are more than 400 million Facebook users , andaround 100 millionof them update their position from peregrine devices such as smartphones . In this context , location information attached to your status would activate the societal internet to target minor business enterprise advertizer .

But Facebook status geolocation info has another rival just around the nook . Twitter , which posts more than 50 million 140 - characters long substance per day , is also prepared to sky the substitution on geolocation feature . Twitter is already permit user of third - political party clients to tie their location info to tweets , but the characteristic is notably missing from the situation itself .

On Tuesday , as the news of Facebook ’s geolocation intentions was revealed , Twitter in short turn on the geolocation feature . MG Siegler of TechCrunchnoted the appearanceof the online feature in a story , but curtly after , Twitter disabled it . The abbreviated encounter signal that Twitter is just putting the final touch on the feature , and is have a bun in the oven to go live during the SXSW group discussion starting Friday .

While it ’s still unreadable how Facebook ’s geolocation feature will work , Twitter offer a coup d’oeil of its own during the unretentive appearance of the feature on Tuesday . Twitter ’s geolocation feature will show function overlay individual tweets and on the independent stream , together with berth name and your location .

Geolocation is quite a big wad for societal networks , and an increasing number of services are jump to incorporate it . However , my concerns over the implications of millions of user publishing their position continuously still stand .

Back in August , when Twitter enabled the opt - in API for geolocation , I gavethree reasons why it is nerveless : you’re able to get societal recommendation from real people , relevant localized news , and see champion and cool multitude around you .

However , equilibrate this routine is problematic to stick with , as I gavethree reasons why you should n’t expend it : crook are tweeting / reading Facebook position too , even more ad in your face , and the want of control over who in reality sees your emplacement .

To top it all off , Facebook does n’t on the dot havethe best track recordwhen it get to protecting user ’ privacy , and with one mischance , it could well work into a privacy incubus .