In the next few weeks, Facebook becomes a little less local in one way. It’s eliminating the Deals feature, Facebook’s answer to the popular Groupon deal-of-the-day-at-a-retailer-near-you service. “The program is being dropped after four months of testing in select markets in Texas, California and Georgia,” the Washington Post reports. This development probably has something to do with Facebook bringing its Places location-check-in feature inline (see my post on the site’s recent significant privacy updates). The Post adds, though, that FB “will continue to offer check-in deals to users who share their location with friends.”
As for what Facebook’s adding instead of deleting, see this other Washington Post piece for details on Facebook’s answer to mobile messaging (like the BlackBerry Messenger, now infamously popular in the UK, Google’s Huddles, and the forthcoming Apple messaging service). Facebook Messenger is now available at the Apple App Store and Android Market.
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