So, Facebook launched its location based tool last week allowing Facebook users to “check-in” to places and inform the social network and their friends of their location at any one time. With the only real discerning differences between Facebook Places and Foursquare the ability to “check in” your friends when out with a group the question is raised as to whether this service is going to be the catalyst for the growth of such services or the downfall of Foursquare, Gowalla and the like due to the scale of the Facebook user base.

It is a question which won’t be answered for a while as Facebook Places is only available to US users but there already signs of it having an impact on the market. Foursquare sign ups rocketed on the day Facebook Places launched possibly due to the fact Foursquare will be integrated with Facebook Places, or possible just due to the huge amounts of coverage the service got off the back of the Facebook launch.

Due to its gigantic user base, the Facebook platform will undoubtedly overtake Foursquare and Gowalla very soon in terms of overall users, and will take location logging services to the masses of users who were unaware it even existed. It does however lack the badges and points functionality of Foursquare which add to appeal and create the gaming environment, without this it might not achieve the longer term adoption.

Or could it simply be a facilitator of further Foursquare growth as people gain awareness of the services and choose the more developed Foursquare platform, which can ultimately integrate with Facebook anyway.

I am already a Foursquare user and can’t see me wanting to run two services, although would likely integrate Foursquare and Facebook if the opportunity arose. Are you a Foursquare user already? Do you see yourself using Facebook places when it’s hits the UK?

Robert Weatherhead heads up the SME solutions function at Latitude Group Ltd, a leading UK digital marketing agency.