Image by stevegarfield via Flickr

This morning, Facebook announced that it would be taking it’s highly praised and highly controversial Open Graph and Like Button to the streets.  Soon, this functionality will be available on mobile phones via mobile applications.  Given the explosion of mobile internet and app use in the past few months/years, this was the next logical step in the progression of Open Graph.

Perhaps what’s most interesting about this announcement is the language used by Eric Tseng, Facebook’s Head of Mobile Products.  He said Facebook “really sees mobile as the future.”  With Facebook’s recent usage and cross-platform functionality explosions, it seems as though the overall digital landscape will be largely influenced by moves made by Facebook.  Mobile sites and applications will soon be able to take advantage of this new social functionality.

Let’s take Foursquare or Yelp for example; Many of us are used to checking in or reading reviews on this type of mobile app.  When Facebook brings the Like Button to these apps, we’ll not only be able to check into these locations on Foursquare, we’ll be able to see which of our Facebook friends have liked that venue.  We’ll be able to read reviews or see Likes from those same friends from a nearby restaurant on Yelp or Urbanspoon as well.  Sure, we have “friends” on these applications already, but the potential is much greater with the bucket of hundreds of my Facebook friends than it is with the 15 or 20 close friends I have on Foursquare.

So next time you’re at the local pub or grabbing a hot dog during a game at the stadium, you may be able to tell your community exactly how you feel about that happy hour special or ballpark dog – all by a single click of that “thumbs up” we’ve come to know so well.  Most mobile apps we’re used to using have great social functionality built in.  Now, many of them will have the social functionality built in – the easy to use Like Button.

Oh… and if anyone is doubting that Facebook will soon be releasing a location based application of its own, I think you can put those doubts to rest.  Announcements like these continue to show where Facebook’s thoughts are going, and they are going mobile.

Tags: Facebook, Foursquare, Like, Open Graph, Yelp