Although it doesn’t match the incomparable vastness of Google, Facebook over the years has accumulated a huge database of user information based on photos and comments tagged to a location or attached to personal pages. It was thus only a matter of time before they took advantage of all this material to create a service for searching tourism-related establishments based on user reviews in the style of Yelp, Touristeye, or Minube. Facebook users, meet Facebook Places.
Its main page has a search bar where you can look up results for a particular city. When you do, you’ll be taken to an intro page where you can see all the different subsections, among them restaurants, hotels, bars, cafes, public attractions, arts & entertainment, gyms, movie theaters, schools, theaters, grocery stores, and landmarks. The main view displays the average rating out of five stars and in certain cases the comments or reviews of a specific Facebook user, especially if they are one of your contacts.
When you click on each section you’ll see a review of the available places along with a preview showing the location’s opening times, phone number, and average rating. You’ll also see a map with the exact location of each attraction. If you instead click on the link for the business itself, you’ll be taken to its normal Facebook page.
While the database still leaves something to be desired in that it requires the business to have a proper Facebook page, its potential is still clear as a tool that coherently organizes all the info you’re looking for, including the millions of comments left by users on their own walls.
