We’re starting to see several apps emerge that solve the problem of so-called “checkin-fatigue,” but many lack integration of a wide-variety of networks and don’t aggregate the additional data that users expect, like nearby rewards and accomplishments like badges, points, and so on.

Footfeed, an iPhone app that recently released its 2.0 version, does just that — it brings together the most popular location-based social networks in addition to aggregating nearby rewards and promotions into a well-polished interface.  The app currently supports Gowalla, Foursquare, Brightkite, Latitude, Facebook and Twitter, and introduces users to 4 sections upon opening the app.

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While LBS apps like Foursquare, Gowalla, Loopt and others continue to evolve their respective advertising models, third-party providers are busy building platform of their own that leverage the communities surrounding such apps and services for unique integrated marketing campaigns.

One such startup, PlacePunch, recently debuted a new platform that allows businesses both big and small to run their own location-based marketing campaigns that integrate with Foursquare, Facebook Places, Twitter, Gowalla and others — effectively providing a one-stop platform to leverage mobile location from all the major players.  The platform allows for a variety of campaigns, including loyalty and rewards programs that take advantage of checkins, proximity to certain venues and other location-oriented attributes.

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Gowalla has long had an interest in stepping beyond the confines of the ubiquitous “checkin” to leverage location in other useful and unique ways.  The company today announced a new addition to its service that does just that.

Called “Highlights,” the new addition aims to define places using user experiences rather than checkins.  Here’s how it works: a user is asked to tag real world places based on a set of criteria, so for example, you’re asked to name your favorite “Date Night” spot, the place you think has the “Best Tacos,” your “Alma Mater,” and your favorite “Watering Hole,” among other things.  Each of these answers reveals a bit about who you actually are, and where you spend your time.

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For those wondering how Facebook’s recently announced Places functionality would effect other LBS apps, it was announced yesterday that Foursquare saw its most new-user signups ever — just one day after Facebook launched a similar concept.

Foursquare co-founder Dennis Crowley tweeted yesterday in reference to the milestone saying; “Just heard from @HarryH that today was @foursquare’s biggest day ever in terms of new user signups.”  HarryH refers to Foursquare’s engineering lead Harry Heymann.  While I assumed the launch of Places would have a positive effect on the likes of Foursquare, Gowalla and the rest, I didn’t think it would be so substantial so quickly.

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During the lead-up to Facebook’s announcement of their new check-in/location functionality, many wondered what effect it would have on other LBS startups that occupy the same market — namely Foursquare, Gowalla, Yelp and a host of others.

That question was answered today as Facebook announced their new API to go along with its “places” functionality.  Reps from Foursquare and Gowalla even took the stage during the announcement to talk about how they plan to leverage the new API to their advantage.  In short, Facebook made it clear that they intend to play nice with other LBS apps.

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It’s long been speculated, but it looks as though Facebook is closer than ever to launching its much-anticipated check-in solution to take on the LBS market.  With an estimated 500M mobile-toting users worldwide, LBS startups should start to worry — or should they?

Though it’s mere speculation at this point, it’s been reported that Facebook will officially launch its check-in initiative within the next few weeks in the form of issuing an application programming interface (API) to enable third-party developers to more deeply integrate existing check-in solutions into the Facebook platform.  Could we soon see the likes of Foursquare, Gowalla and Loopt playing nicely with Facebook going forward?  It’s in the best interest of Facebook to provide an infrastructure to the LBS market rather than dominate it with a proprietary solution, so it’s a smart move for the social giant.

What’s interesting is that at least one start-up in the geolocation space was told by a Facebook insider that it might want to think about changing the language of a thumbs-up type of feature into “like” — possibly preparing for integration of Facebook’s ubiquitous “like” buttons.  In lieu of “checking-in,” Facebook might push “liking” a location instead.

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One disadvantage Gowalla has long had over Foursquare is the lack of a full read/write API, which Foursquare has sported since last November.  Today, that’s no longer true.

The startup today announced that their full API is active and available to all third-party developers.  The startup first announced their API availability back in February, but was limited to read-access only.  With the release of the full check-in API, third-party apps can now create check-ins on behalf of users using the implementation of OAuth 2.0, which allows users to securely grant access to their Gowalla accounts.

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