The word on the grapevine is that next month Facebook plans to unveil a tool that will add another dynamic to your friend integration.  It seems you will be able to keep up to speed with your friends’ current locations.

Facebook has been working on a location-based tool for almost a year, but have been waiting to get their privacy terms water-tight and the service perfected. Rumour has it that there will be two distinct features of the tool. In its simplest version you’ll be able to directly share your location with friends. The more interesting aspect is that this tool will allow for independent developers to create apps that take advantage of the Facebook location function.

About 100 million people access Facebook from mobile devices, which makes a location feature an incredibly attractive idea to app developers.

The issue of privacy is certainly an ever-shifting concept. I recently heard a Twitter evangelist compare modern day digital privacy to that of ancient Japanese architecture. The point I think he was making (in a slightly LCD fashion) is that we are far more exposed in our digital lives, and maybe that’s OK. But Facebook will certainly want to be prepared for any backlash to privacy concerns; an inevitability with any Facebook change.

With the growing success of Foursquare, it’s evident that there is a very lucrative market out there for a business application based on customer location. It will be interesting to see whether Facebook positions this tool to go head to head with Foursquare. Stayed tuned for developments.