Using Places on the iPhone already lets you share where you are and find nearby friends. Now with the iPhone 3.3 application, you can also find nearby deals from your favorite businesses–from restaurants down the block to major retailers. Deals are only available from Places in the U.S, for now, and we’ll be expanding them to more merchants over time.
Local Business + Facebook = Deals
People who use Places, Facebook’s location feature, will see a yellow icon indicating that a redeemable deal or coupon is available nearby. They can then use the application to “check in” at the store or restaurant and show their phone’s screen to an employee to claim their deal.
To start, the new feature is available only through the Facebook iPhone application. Android users can find local deals through a dedicated mobile Web site.
Facebook’s deals program borrows heavily from location-based social networks like Foursquare, Loopt and Gowalla, which have long been experimenting with similar ways to offer rewards and deals on cellphones.
