The LA Times posed the question, “Is Facebook Places a foursquare killer?” the day of the Facebook Places launch. At first glance, one would be remiss to disagree, as Facebook’s social prowess makes foursquare’s location-based service look puny in comparison.

However, just four days after Facebook launched Facebook Places, foursquare marked its biggest growth spurt ever. Fourquare increased from 2.6 million users before Facebook’s mobile social validating launch on August 19th to 3 million users as of August 29th. According to Mashable.com, foursquare will continue to grow at a rate of 15,000 users a day.

The votes are in, and it seems foursquare is still the mayor of location-based mobile social networks. Why? Well, there are many takes on the issue out there. 

Gavin Dunaway at Adotas surmises, “People knew about foursquare and its location-based ilk, but Facebook Places legitimized it, made it safe for the masses.” So which service is preferred by the masses? Mashable’s Web Faceoff Poll from the week after Facebook Places’ launch elected foursquare as the preferred location-based service with 57.1% of the votes; on top of that, 7.7% of voters said they use/like both.

Even foursquare’s CEO, Dennis Crowley, has a very vocal opinion about Places’ appeal. “I have now had a chance to play around with Facebook Places, and it’s not that great or interesting. It’s a pretty boring service, with barely any incentives for users to keep coming back and telling their friends where they are,” he said during a recent interview with The Telegraph.

I personally have yet to use Facebook Places, since I have an android phone, and it has not been added to my Facebook app. But I have a feeling I won’t be adopting it as my main location-based service. I already have Twitter, Facebook, and foursquare linked up the way I like it, and foursquare fulfills my current “check-in” needs with a fun, game-like feel. It would take a lot for me to make a change.