If you use Ticketmaster online, you already know about its interactive seat maps feature for zooming in on seats and checking out reviews of the them by previous event-goers. Now you can also find where your Facebook friends are sitting at events you're considering attending, so you can book seats near them, or you can "tag" yourself so others can find you when they look to buy tickets.
The "see who's sitting where" feature went live Wednesday for more than 9,000 Ticketmaster and LiveNation events.
"Since first launching interactive seat maps, our fans have regularly told us how great the maps are for getting tickets close to family and friends," a Ticketmaster product manager says in a video explaining the new service. "That got us thinking: What if we made it easier to find where your friends were sitting directly in the map?"
The feature is dubbed "See who's sitting where," and you get to it on Ticketmaster by going through Facebook first.
"As soon as you load a seat map, information about who's sitting where will automatically load, so you can immediately browse around the map to get an idea of where people are sitting," Ticketmaster says.
"We also show a list of friends and other fans that are tagged in seats at the event. So if you're looking for someone specific, just click on their name to zoom to their seat. Once zoomed in, you can make a purchase or you're free to browse around for other tagged seats. if you already have a ticket to the event, you can even tag yourself into your own seat so that other friends can look for you."
Ticketmaster executive vice president of e-commerce Kip Levin told Mashable that the company "studied the way people bought tickets," and that some said "they would buy tickets … because they knew where their friends were sitting."
When each ticket buyer share his or her purchase with friends online, it results in an additional $5 in ticket sales, he said. Hence, it's hoped that the "see who's sitting where" feature, it's hoped, will help increase ticket sales.
But Ticketmaster also wants you to know that this is a true opt-in experience. It can't happen unless you make it so. And you can choose who you want to share the info with. That should ease concerns about being stalked by weird exes or others you fear might show up 3 feet away from you at a ball game or concert.
"Note that whenever you or anyone else tags a seat, we'll always ask you who you want to share your tag with — whether it's with everyone that sees the map or just your friends," the company says. "That way you'll always have full control over your own privacy setting."
Related stories:
- 'Facebook phone' not getting much face time?
- Facebook to revamp privacy controls
- 'Friend-Watch' Facebook app tells you who deletes you
Check out Technolog, Gadgetbox, Digital Life and In-Game on Facebook, and on Twitter, follow Suzanne Choney.