Not only can you find out what your friends are doing, now you can find out where they are! You heard me right. Facebook announced today their new Places feature that will allow you to “Checkin” to different places all around the world.

This is kind of exciting, but kind of scary too, what do you think? Are you more scared or more excited to use the new Places feature?

The feature should be released tomorrow starting with users in the USA and then rolling out to all users soon after. Information can currently be found on their developer documentation as well as in a video of their live announcement.

Images Source: Business Insider

The Developer Roadmap for Facebook was just released which states:

Developers will be able to ask users to share their primary email addresses (for example, firstname.lastname@domain.com).

Source: Roadmap Email – Facebook Developers

Not such a bad thing?

I’m not opposed to the change too much, I mean it makes sense that applications should be able to request permission to have your email but there are a TON of crappy applications out there on Facebook whose only purpose is to SPAM your average joe-sixpack, and this might be bad for the unknowing user.

Anyways, as our philosophy goes here, be aware and knowledgable, or… get spammed, stalked, etc. This is your online identity, and we advise that you protect it.

What current, legitmate Facebook application would you like to have your email address?

• I’d say mapmyrun.com, that works pretty well.

Any others?

Policy: You must not circumvent our intended limitations on core Facebook features. For example:

• You must not notify a user that someone has removed the user as a friend.
• You must not track visits to a user’s profile, or estimate the number of such visits, whether aggregated anonymously or identified individually.

Source: http://developers.facebook.com/policy/#policies

Do you think this is a good thing?

Their application states:

“FanCheck is adding new features and new capacity. This could take a few days.
Please become a fan, and we’ll send you an update when we’re back online.”

For now, check out their website: http://www.facebook.com/fancheck.

Link Updated

The link to the application has been updated. Their website www.stalkercheck.com is down, but their Facebook application is still working.

How it Works

From the developers of the application:

• “Thanks everyone for your questions and comments. The list is based on a number of factors, but real interactions (wall posts, likes, comments etc) are weighted heavily. The app considers the last 200 friend interactions – for most people this means visitors over the last month.”

It shows you your top stalkers and actually ranks them in order. You then also have the option to click on your friends who have been “stalking” you and check out their top stalkers.

Accuracy

It is pretty accurate if the person that is stalking you also talks to you… The problem comes when the person that is stalking you tries to leave no trace (which is usually the case). I don’t think there will ever be a Facebook application that would let you trace the people that don’t want to be traced… there is always wishful thinking though!

Adding the Application

When you click on the link for the Stalker Checker Application, you will see this ->

Stalker Checker In Use

Here is a screenshot of the application running under my account. For my the privacy of my friends and my own, I’ve blurred the images and names.

What do you think?

Leave your comments about the Stalker Checker application here.