Better because it allows you to simply share your location with your friends without all the rubbish foursquare adds. I know the places I want to go and I am not interested in earning a 'badge' to go there. I just want to let my friends know where I am!

It seems that many people consider Facebook Places way better than Foursquare specifically due to "No tips, no explore, No trending, No badges (worthless, but fun), and less specials than Foursquare"

At the same time, virtually everybody I know who has tried Places has said the exact opposite.

To be fair, I have many friends who use Foursquare for its most obvious and intended purpose, which is to arrange spontaneous meetups without having to text all their friends where they are or to find out where everybody is going. I do it myself, I just pop open 4sq on the phone and see "oh, everybody is at Foo's Bar" and then go there. Easy. Facebook Places makes that simple action incredibly difficult and slow.

Places essentially fails as well because it broadens the userbase too much. My college friends whom I no longer live near couldn't care less what bar I'm at. My local friends who I'm friends with on 4sq do care. So there's a natural separation. I'm only 4sq friends with people I'm likely to see often. I'm Facebook friends with almost everybody I've ever known.

Location as meta is a good thing for Facebook. Location as check-in doesn't fit with Facebook's friend model.