• ReadWriteWeb, Friday, February 18, 2011 1 PM

ReadWriteWeb believes Facebook has the ability to blow location-based social -- or LBS -- media wide open. Citing an announcement by microformats community leader Tantek Çelik, the tech resource notes that Facebook now publishes its millions of user-generated event listings according to the standardized microformats hCalendar and hCard. Translation? "That means that the venues where all these events are being held are now described in a universally standardized way," according to ReadWriteWeb.

According to RWW, all Facebook has to do is allow sites other than the big three search engines to index its events listings, which would inevitably "move everyone in the industry to understand places around the world in the same simple terms." And per RWW, it's Facebook's moral obligation to do so. "To publish place data in the standardized format, but not in an open and accessible way, is like building tracks the same width as all the others, but not only letting a few of the biggest train companies ride those rails."

Read the whole story at ReadWriteWeb »