Having trouble finding that special someone to stalk-uh I mean, sit next to at your next concert? Well, good news, everyone! Ticketmaster, the event-ticketing property currently owned by Live Nation, is taking online seat-maps to a whole new, possibly creepy level. Event-goers can now see where their Facebook friends are sitting and tag themselves in the new interactive feature. A Facebook account will be connected to the Ticketmaster website showcasing a special highlighted seat-map which then displays where fellow friends are located via a miniature Facebook flag. Sound cool? Ticketmaster executive vice-president of e-commerce, Kip Levin, certainly thinks so and views the friend-filled feature as a break from the impersonal experience brought about by the modern methods of buying tickets on the internet. He recently expressed this idea to Mashable stating that, “Online took away form the old experience of going down to the record store to purchase tickets,” he says. No word on whether there will be a $20 convenience fee to poke somebody.

The news of Ticketmaster’s Facebook-infused event-map comes at the same time that rival Anschutz Entertainment Group (AEG) will begin selling their own tickets on the new site, axs.com. Partnered with Outbox Technology, the new consumer ticketing site will be an alternative and rival to Ticketmaster and Live Nation. Although Axs Ticketing will start up by initially catering to only a handful of AEG owned venues, the company expects 100-plus facilities to be added by the end of 2012. Not too shabby. How do they plan on standing apart from the competition? A “white label” ticketing model will be implemented where individual web-sites for each venue will be created so that they can sell their own tickets, too. Fred Rosen, former CEO of Ticketmaster who now heads Outbox Enterprises, told Ticket News that, “there’s an entry point through the venues, and an entry point through Axs.” He goes on to add, “they can build the overarching brand of Axs, while also building the local brand through the venue, so consumers can easily find the attraction the want.” He sees this as Axs Ticketing, “having a direct relationship with their consumers.” Aw, thanks, buddy.

Also, fans who purchase tickets on the Axs site will be able to see the whole price of the ticket including all fees and will not be charged for at-home printing. Ticketmaster has also begun to show the total cost and is getting rid of the $2.50 print-at-home fee. It should be noted that the data generated through the AEG site is for use only with its venues. So, each individual venue will be the only ones accessing their own data. This is unlike Ticketmaster and its parent company Live Nation who not only have access to their user-information but use it for data analysis, offering clients insight and information on exactly how, where, and to whom they should sell their tickets.