The NY Times reports that Facebook will be launching a new free classifieds feature known as the "Marketplace" sometime tomorrow. Users will be able to choose who can view their listings, just like they can set permissions for their profiles today.

It really makes a lot of sense to introduce such a feature into into a well-established social networking service - it's far more convenient to put up a private classifieds listing on a site that all your friends are already using on an almost daily (even hourly for some!) basis than to get all of them to sign up for a new service just for that purpose, or to individually email all of them. It'll be interesting to observe how well the new feature fares in the coming months. Do you think you'll use it?

On a related note, I must say that I've been impressed with the way Facebook has been shaping up recently. They've been firing on all cylinders, and introduced a slick new design not too long ago. I joined the network back in 2004, then went on a long hiatus for several months, and have recently started using it more often again, especially to reconnect with old friends from Irvine and India.

Related posts: How to get Facebook status updates via IM.