UPDATE: August 19th 12:00 AM – Places feature is now visible. I can see friends checking in but I am not able to check in myself

UPDATE: 11:40pm ET: Just installed the facebook update that includes the new “Places” application and this is what I see

On the afternoon of Wednesday August 19th 2010 Facebook has announced a new experience on its website, Facebook Places. Facebook Places is a new feature where members will be able to “Check-in” and tag your friends in those check-ins as well as share with friends where you are and as well as what places you are in is your favorite place.

There has been much speculation that with facebook coming out with location based services for its site that it would kill other location based services like Foursquare, Gowalla, Booyah, and Yelp. Well at the live launch of Facebook Places along with the announcement was that all the location based services are partnering with Facebook to really expand the experience and still be able to enjoy receiving badges on foursquare and stamps on your passport on Gowalla.  The new feature for facebook is set to be released tonight.