Despite the bungled launch and short hiatus, Twitter Places is back in action. The feature has huge implications for the geo-location space and the location-sharing movement.

Places is a big improvement on Twitter’s () previous geo-location offering, which was never widely adopted or embraced by the majority of users. Whereas before users had to adjust their settings and agree to posting every single tweet with their geo-coordinates, now Twitterers are presented with an elegant way to attach a place to their tweet, one tweet at a time.

Right now Places is a Twitter web and mobile experience only, but soon developers will integrate the Places API into their applications and services. Only then will we see Twitter Places reach its full potential. If Twitter can fix the issues crippling the service, then Places has the power to turn location-sharing into a mainstream behavior and significantly boost interest in applications like Foursquare () — not to mention the monetization potential of location-based ads.

Interesting. I agree though and don't think that Foursquare is going anywhere. A friend of mine who works over at The Viper Room (@BerkoRules) said that those little badges cost $15K/ MONTH to maintain, that they have 3 months backlog, and that they aren't accepting any new badge applications at the moment. They were looking into them I believe for the Sunset Strip Music Festival.