Facebook buys Gowalla, sorry we stole your business
Posted Saturday, December 3, 2011 at 10:38 am by Jason Cartwright
The world of location-based services and check-ins is certainly a fierce place to live. CNN are reporting that Facebook have purchased Gowalla, although there’s still no official post on the Gowalla blog. Known best for its gorgeous UI, and high profile investors like Kevin Rose, it seems none of that was a match for Facebook.
When Facebook launched their check-in feature last year, they were careful to invite ‘partners’ Gowalla and Foursquare, the two big players in the space at the time. With a user base of 800 million users, all but the die-hard users began moving their checkin behaviour to Facebook.
Seen by more of their friends, with more opportunity for comments, meetups and integration with an app you already use daily, it was a winning formula. While Gowalla originally started with a point of difference (collecting and leaving virtual items) the company ended up removing that.
Gowalla suffered not only from the introduction of Facebook Places, but were also lagged behind Foursquare’s rapid growth in user adoption. Foursquare offers an easy way to push check-ins to Facebook, meaning you can tap their deal system and post to your existing network there (assuming they all didn’t move to Facebook as well).
So let this be a lesson to any Industry, when Facebook decides to make a move in your direction, you’re headed for a world of hurt. The best hope you have is that they do the right thing and acquire your talent. In this instance, Facebook will take on most of Gowalla’s employees.
More information @ CNNMoney.
Gowalla beats Foursquare to the iPad
Posted Friday, April 30, 2010 at 8:33 pm by Jason CartwrightIn the war of location-based mobile applications, the new frontier is the iPad. Gowalla have made it to the iPad app store first, before their larger competitor Foursquare. The Gowalla iPad application works incredibly well even with the Wi-Fi only iPad, with your location being detected very quickly.
See the location of your friends on a Google Map. Standard, Satellite or Hybrid views available.
Your Passport shows the stamps, pins and items you’ve acquired. You can also see a list of all your friends. Clicking on a friend will show you their stats.
Spots are locations around you can Check-in at.
Overall it’s a great app that takes advantage of the extra screen real estate offered by the iPad.
Location update: Gowalla and Foursquare update apps
Posted Thursday, March 11, 2010 at 7:13 am by Jason CartwrightFoursquare and Gowalla have both updated their iPhone apps overnight ahead of the SXSW conference in the US.
Let’s start with Foursquare, version 1.7 contains a refreshed UI, speed improvements, and places now support categories like the website.
Available from the iTunes Store
Gowalla gets a full point release, reaching version 2.0. This update also contains a update to the design, which increases usability and is easier to read. You can now add photos to a venue after checking in and browse photos others have taken at that location. That’s huge !
Available from the iTunes Store
