Facebook has just launched a new feature: Suggested Events. It scrabbles through your account history to find events you might like to attend in real life. But is that a great idea, or will it generate a bunch of irritating spam?
According to TechCrunch , the tool uses information from your Facebook check-in history, brand page activity, and the RSVPs of your online friends to compile a list of events. It also makes suggestions based on the music you listen to through Open Graph apps — presumably meaning that you'll see concert tips in the list, too.
The service seems similar to Foursquare's discovery tool Radar — but given the sheer weight of Facebook users, this will no doubt attract far more users. The feature is already live, and you can see your Suggested Events page here.
On the surface of things, it seems like a positive addition for users: knowing about interesting stuff that's happening is a good thing. But there's no obvious way to remove events from the list — you can either join the event or say maybe — so I do wonder just how much spam will accumulate.
And when it does, how useful will the service be? Throw into the mix Facebook's increasing emphasis on advertising, and you may likely end up with a bunch of corporate crap in your list, too. Let's see how good Facebook's software is. [TechCrunch via The Verge; Image: west.m]