It's been a long time coming, in Internet terms, but the check-in wars have finally started, with the recent launch of Facebook Places and Deals together with the counter punch from Google of Latitude check-ins.

The two Internet goliaths' check-in offerings have subtle differences. Facebook Places lets you add places, such as your home, whereas Google only offers a predefined list. The recent announcement of Facebook Deals gives users a possible incentive for checking in. Google, at the moment, have no official plans for such a service. With Latitude you can choose to be notified when a check-in is available and be automatically checked-in to certain places you often visit. You are also checked out automatically when you leave. Facebook's offering is a manual process. Latitude also offers tiered levels of check-in statuses, much like foursquare, where you can become a regular at a particular place after several check-ins.

Google Latitude excels as an 'always on' update of your current position. It will automatically track your travels at intervals and levels of accuracy, as well as sharing options, that you can easily control. Facebook has no equivalent technology.

The other big player in the geotagging revolution is Twitter. They, however, offer a different flavour of this technology. You can choose to share where you sent your tweet, from area or town level, down to a place or specific GPS coordinate, but there is no concept of 'checking-in'.

Personally I think the winner in this war, or, as the winner in any war is defined, the side that loses more slowly, will be Facebook. For one simple reason: user base. All the people I would want to share my check-in data with are already my friends on Facebook. Only a small percentage of them use Latitude. That reason only, despite any technological superiority or advanced features, will be the deciding factor for most users.

One thing is for sure - geotagged data, one way or another, is here to stay.