Facebook to track friends’ locations

FACEBOOK’S 500 million-plus users will soon be able to track friends’ whereabouts, as the world’s largest Internet social network adds technology to increasingly tie its virtual world to everyday life.

The new Places feature, which began rolling out last Wednesday to some users and goes across the US within weeks, is touted as a tool to help users share where they are, figure out who is in the vicinity, and check out happenings and services within the same locale.

The addition of so-called location services to Facebook opens new revenue opportunities for the company but also presents it with privacy challenges.