I agree with the article's predictions with respect to foursquare, but I'm not sure about Facebook, there's still tremendous potential there. Facebook appears to have released Places without putting much thought into it beyond allowing people to simply check in wherever they are and share it with their friends. But I wouldn't be surprised if they were working on incorporating deals with local businesses, etc on a much larger scale, some time soon, either on their own or in conjunction with Groupon or Living Social.