Facebook Places (aka The chance for serendipitous discovery) seems to be the big talk of the week. What might spell the end of Foursquare (at least in the Uk where it’s barely taken off), has actually resulted in record signup for the 3 million user strong social network.

On Thursday the Telegraph ponted out quite amusingly that Facebook Places logo is ’4′ in a square and Foursquare CEO Dennis Crowley has been quite vocal in the press recently.

In an interview with Mashable, Crowley said that he believes Facebook and Foursquare serve two different purposes. “Facebook is about sharing experiences that you’ve had,” he said. “Foursquare is more about the present tense and the future tense.”

Mashable writer Ben Parr goes on to point out

With heightened media and user interest, it’s no wonder people are signing up to find out what this location thing is all about.

Record signups doesn’t mean the company’s in the clear, though. As the weeks and months pass and Places establishes itself as a service, we’ll get a better picture of whether Foursquare can fend off Facebook’s advances and continue its rapid growth.

Although not yet available in the UK yet (even though I can see it on my iPhone app) Places pretty much does what Foursquare does…… but as it’s Facebook it’s more likely to capture the British imagination far quicker than Foursquare really had a chance to.

Facebook have also just posted this very slick promotional video for Places. It’s really more of a pitch on how Facebook can enhance your social life.

The video even describes the wonders of a serendipitous discovery of your friends trails….. actaully serendipitous discovery is mentioned twice in this two and a half minute video.

There’s also a few quite bold statements from the Facebook develop team…

I expect in the future people are going to share a lot more of their lives this way.

Have a look at the video and make your own mind up about it….