Quick – today’s the last day, but if you’re in New Orleans, use Foursquare to find one of eight footballs that Saints Running Back Reggie Bush has autographed and placed in various locations around the city for fans to discover [Mashable via Yahoo!]

A story that probably seems totally obvious, but colleges are embracing Foursquare and Foursquare is embracing colleges – even offering college-focused badges [ABC News]

Context Optional is now giving businesses a way to create their own customizable “leaderboards” for users who check-in to their stores [TechCrunch]

But if you’re a business that’s looking to really take advantage of Places (and Foursquare, and Twitter), you probably want to check out PlacePunch – which will allow you to build loyalty programs, offer specials, etc., as well as collect and analyze check-in data [TechCrunch]

Foursquare’s strategy to “dominating” the location-based services space = informing users’ real time behavior, which it already does to an extent through users leaving tips for other users [NY Observer]

Which is pretty much right in line with Gowalla founder Josh Williams‘ comments to the Observer about location-based services needing to be “useful” to survive [NY Observer]

So, “Trackdropper” may be the most innovative location-based app I’ve seen yet – it lets you “drop” music files from your smartphone in physical locations for other users to “find” and play. Like CNET says, it’s Pirate Bay (or any torrent site, really) meets Foursquare [CNET]

And speaking of new location-based apps, The HotList is a new (somewhat location-based) app that aggregates data from Facebook Places, Yelp, Twitter and Google Maps to tell you what nearby venues are currently popular regardless of whether any of your “friends” are there. It also gives you the female-to-male ratio and any recent Yelp reviews or Tweets [Mashable]

The latest Gowalla adventure = following CNN’s John King around the country, checking out his favorite places in each state, and potentially earning the “John King, USA” Pin for completing one of King’s trips on your own [Mediaite]

Loopt founder Sam Altman on Facebook Places, the iPad, and other such topics and “the challenges of getting small businesses to advertise” [BusinessWeek]

The UK becomes the first European country with its own tourism agency – “Welcome to Yorkshire” – on Foursquare [The Drum]

The Times’ Claire Cain Miller and ReadWriteWeb‘s Adrianne Jeffries talk about a gamut of issues surrounding location-based services including (but not limited to) if fake check-ins matter, how big of a threat Facebook Places is to startups, and why Google and Twitter haven’t yet been succcessful in the space [CNET]

Apparently there’s some misinformation going around about Facebook Places ON Facebook…of all Places… [NY Times]

“5 New Ways Small Businesses Can Offer Location-Based Deals” [Mashable]

Despite some evidence to the contrary, Facebook was apparently NOT testing Places in the UK this past weekend [TechCrunch]

Now this is pretty cool – for you Android users, if you have/download the Vlingo app, you can check in on Foursquare just by telling your phone to do so [eWeek]

The Hot or Not app (as in hotornot.com) lets you know when “hotties” are close by…brilliant! [TechCrunch]

Brightkite teams up with its biggest partner to date – McDonald’s – to offer the first 500 users who check-in at any McDonald’s a $5 Visa gift card [Mobile Marketing Watch]

ABI Research says that location-based advertising could net $1.5 billion advertising dollars five years from now… [Wireless and Mobile News]

Not entirely a location-based service, but Jeep has released a TripCast app that lets you geotag photos, videos, audio and status updates while you’re on the go (obviously best for a longer trip) [Technorati]

WhereMark is a new location-based type service that allows you to share Google Maps “bookmarks” with your Facebook friends…but it sounds like the service is about as well-constructed as the company’s pitch [TechCrunch]

Hey, guess what? This year’s US Open has an iPhone app! And one of its features (along with a slick augmented reality feature) is the ability to check-in on Foursquare…which of course you could just do using the Foursquare app, but there’s a lot more to the US Open app that makes it potentially worth nabbing [Mashable]

On the new services front, Place Pop has announced a Facebook Places dashboard that you can use to discover what locations are “trending” among your friends using Places, and a complete list of where they have all most recently checked-in. IE – it sounds like using the Foursquare iPhone app [TechCrunch]

Elsewhere on Facebook Places, MeetMoi became the first location-based dating app to integrate with Places (sidenote – I could’ve easily made the “love at first sight” joke here, but it would’ve been too easy) [Mashable]

Oh, and if you were interested to know what Foursquare’s OTHER founder thinks about Facebook Places, surprise surprise his opinion is in line with his buddy Dennis Crowley‘s – he says it’s “boring” [PC Mag]

Some interesting accolades for Foursquare – the World Economic Forum has listed the location-based service among its “top international innovators”… [WSJ]

So, in case you were wondering how Virgin America‘s Loopt/taco truck promotion went yesterday – it sounds like it was a resounding success, leading to the airlines fifth biggest revenue day EVER, and 80% of those who checked-in via Loopt Star have already booked tickets to Cabo/Cancun! [TechCrunch]

AOL getting into the location-based service craze? The company just may be as it bought the company Rally Up, which makes two location-based apps – Rally Up and FacePlant [eWeek]

And finally – Not entirely location-based related, but Google now will allow businesses to advertise in Google Maps via custom icons for their businesses that would replace the generic-looking ones…it’s only in beta to a select group of larger chain businesses, but if all goes well, it could be available to any business soon [paidcontent.org]

Previously, Booyah‘s location-based arsenal consisted of the oddly popular MyTown app. But as of yesterday, MyTown is joined by Booyah’s latest app, InCrowd. InCrowd is the first app to work off of Facebook‘s Places API, and allows you to “experience” your check-ins through its virtual world (as you can see above) [TechCrunch]

Broadway’s coming to Foursquare…er, sort of. Pretty soon, Foursquare users will be able to get discounts on souvenirs at live shows (and other incentives to be named later) just by showing whoever is manning the merchandise kiosk their phone screen, indicating they checked in at that show [Broadway World]

In the latest Gowalla news, the location-based service has introduced a new feature called, “Highlights,” which allows users to “surface” their favorite places in a given town for others to explore and enjoy [Mashable]

For our California friends – Check in on Loopt Star at one of Virgin America‘s taco trucks in San Fran or LA today and you can get a free 2nd ticket for a flight to Mexico (Cabo or Cancun) when you buy one for yourself. Plus, two tacos for a dollar!! [Mashable]

With all of these surveys flying around indicating many people still haven’t jumped on the location-based services bandwagon, let’s not forget that many people still don’t even own a smartphone, on which they might use a location-based service [VentureBeat]

Drilling down into yesterday’s NY Times location story, it looks like men between 19 and 35 are the most heavy users of check-in apps [Poynter]

So, if I’m understanding this correctly, Vail Resorts (Vail, CO) has come up with its own sort of location-based social play. EpicMix is an app that rewards users for certain accomplishments by tapping into radio-frequency enabled chips in their lift tickets and season passes (assuming they have those, of course) [Mashable]

Well, while VH1 devises Foursquare badges linked to, you know, music, apparently MTV has devised a badge for getting yourself tested for STDs. And no, I’m not joking. Interesting social study – How many people want their friends to know they’re getting tested for STDs? [AP]

But that’s not all – MTV has actually announced a badge linked to music – any user who follows MTV on Foursquare and checks in to a music venue between yesterday and Sunday will get the MTV VMA Moonman badge (in advance of the actual VMAs, which are September 12). Oh, and in addition to the badge you get entered for a chance to win a trip for two to the VMAs [Mashable]

Gowalla Blackberry users probably already know, but in case you don’t, you’ve got a new version of Gowalla to play with [IntoMobile]

The power of check-in apps as a business’ mobile CRM platform [ZD Net]

And finally, people may still be wary of location-based services, but Apple is in fact, promoting them in the app store [AllNewsMac]

You can’t really go five feet on the web without someone telling you how great Foursquare and other location-based services can be for businesses. But at least one business – Steve Madden – says the results aren’t exactly as “compelling” as you might think… [MediaPost]

Is Facebook adding a “Photo Memories” feature – where you can add photos to any of your “check-ins” – to Places? [Mashable]

Either way, in last week’s Mashable reader poll, Places lost to Foursquare in a landslide – almost 58% of those voting said they would still use Foursquare over Places, while just under 19% said they would use Places. So, there’s that… [Mashable]

And as was expected (though a little sooner than expected), Foursquare just hit the three million user mark [TechCrunch]

Four topline observations from a recent “study” probing why people sometimes check-in “off the grid” on Foursquare [TechCrunch]

Elsewhere in Foursquare news – the company told Gowalla, we’ll see your Madison Square Garden billboard and raise you a digital one in Times Square! [AdRants]

Finally, just a reminder – location-based services still haven’t hit the mainstream. And yes, I fully expect to read this story at least once a month for at least the next year or so [NY Times]

You may have already noticed this, but as of yesterday afternoon, Foursquare has changed the way your check-ins look. Instead of just telling you how many times you’ve checked in and who the mayor of the venue is, it now tells you how many days stand between you and mayorship if that number is less than 10 (days instead of check-ins because it only counts one check-in a day per venue towards mayorship) [Foursquare]

Contrary to what was foretold, SCVNGR (and not Whrrl) should become the latest location-based service to integrate with Facebook Places when it does so today… [ReadWriteWeb]

I missed this one last week, but here’s one aspect where Facebook Places most certainly beats Foursquare – at least on Facebook, you know who every user really is… [PC World]

AT&T is working with the location-based service Scvngr to reward customers at 50 of its midwest stores. Customers have to complete “challenges” to get reward points, but the ultimate reward could be $50 off a Samsung Captivate. [Mashable]

Foursquare beta tested the forthcoming 2.0 version of its app yesterday. The 2.0 app could/should(?) be a few weeks away for us rabid Foursquare users… [Business Insider]

A new social geolocation-aware app called Qilroy allows you to see/participate in all of the conversations going on in at a given location such as a town name or landmark like the Eiffel Tower [TechCrunch]

In a similar vein – a new startup app called MessageParty would let you identify and participate in any “chats” going on around you, based on your location. So, kind of the same thing except you can’t direct at what location you want to see/participate in conversations [Mashable]

Random, but interesting – “The Top 5 Ways Big Brands are Using Foursquare” [Mashable]

While it lacks some of the features iPhone/Android/Blackberry Foursquare users enjoy, ThinkChange has released an unofficial Foursquare app for Symbian S50 phones (like Nokia N97, N97 mini, X6, 5800 XM, Samsung Omnia HD, Sony Ericsson Vivaz)  [Into Mobile]

Apparently, Facebook Places was working in Canada for a hot second yesterday despite the fact that Facebook hasn’t officially rolled Places out to the region yet, though Facebook vehemently denies that it was…however that works [TechCrunch]