The social network Facebook on Wednesday launched its U.S. location-based service called ‘Places‘, which allows its users to report their presence in a specific place and check where their friends throughout the country.

This tool, available from Thursday via a Facebook application for the Apple iPhone and the mobile version of the site designed for touch-screen smartphones will be available in a few weeks in all the United States.

Places is described as a service to help users to notify friends of where they are located, whether they are present in the area or to keep a scheduled or services available nearby.

This feature may be blocked as part of the tools available to members to manage their personal data.

“The idea is not to communicate your position to the world but to share it with your friends,” said Michael Sharon, product manager for Verizon.

This new service will anchor the social network in the real and opens new opportunities for advertising revenues by targeting ads. But Facebook has said he had no plans at present to engage in such activities.

The financial windfall that represents the local advertising market – is estimated at tens of billions of dollars to the United States alone – has already attracted interest from internet groups like Google and Yelp.

Facebook Places Knows Where You Are