According to an Adage story back in may 2010, Facebook was preparing to roll out their location product.  The company was granted early access to the location service thanks to a large ad buy.

The social-networking site will give users the ability to post their location within a status update. McDonald’s, through digital agency Tribal DDB, Chicago, is building an app with Facebook which would allow users to check in at one of its restaurants and have a featured product appear in the post, such as an Angus Quarter Pounder, say executives close to the deal.

Facebook is not directly charging McDonald’s to build the app; Facebook generally does not charge developers to build on its platform. But executives with knowledge say it was negotiated as part of a bigger media buy on Facebook, and McDonald’s will be the first marketer to take advantage of the service.

The fast feeder won’t be alone for long. While McDonald’s is expected to be involved in the rollout in the next few weeks, execs at other digital shops have begun to spec out location-based campaigns in anticipation of Facebook’s impending functionality, which will allow users to include their location in a status update.

Will this be the start of location wars with Google? With Facebooks 500 million active users it was not a case of if but when they would roll out these services. Ding ding, round 1.

Whilst doing a quick search on our title I scrolled down to the bottom of the search results and happened to notice something different than the usual search results that I was used to. At the bottom was  this:

I then clicked on the social circle link and was presented with this page

This is the network of connections Google uses to identify relevant social search results. It is based on a combination of the following:

Direct connections from your Google chat buddies and contacts
Direct connections from links that appear on your Google profile
Secondary connections  that are publicly associated with your direct connections

And when you click on the social content link you are presented with the screen below.

What is clear is that Google has a fight on their hands when it comes to commanding the attention of all of us, what with Twitter and Facebook growing daily.  Is this Google trying to work with what was Google buzz and incorporate it into social search, if so then will definitely have a fight on their hands in winning the hearts, minds and search of the masses.  Leave a comment and let us know your thoughts

Compared to user activity on social networking sites last year, Facebook and Twitter posted gains of 69% and 45% respectively in the U.S. Globally, the total minutes spent on social networks monthly saw a more than 100% gain over the same time last year, driving the average time per person spent on social networks to over six hours per month.  via http://blog.nielsen.com

Are those 100 or even more Facebook friends, really your friends?  Ed Dale made a dramatic and controversial decision to “unfriend” all his Facebook friends and start over. Watch this video to get my thoughts, and let me know your opinion.

Read Ed’s post: its-not-you-its-me-my-goodbye-to-facebook-friends