There's Nothing Wrong with 2nd Place
Gowalla got acqu-hired by Facebook late last year and now they’re shutting down the service.
I had been following the progress of both Foursquare and Gowalla since they launched at SXSW in 2009. Even though I didn’t feel the need to join either until recently. I was more attracted to Gowalla because of it’s beautiful & colorful design (obviously), and because it was less popular (you see, I like rooting for the underdog) so I joined. Then they released that version 4.0 which nobody understood how to use even though it was still beautiful, then a few weeks/months later they announced the sale to Facebook. Needless to say, I was unhappy with the news. First because they gave-up, second because they sold out to big blue. I deleted my account but didn’t jump onto Foursquare yet. I wanted to watch the space to see how Gowalla’s exit will affect it.
If you had asked anybody to mention Location Based Services they knew, they’d mention Foursquare first then [most likely] Gowalla. Despite the fact that Foursquare had more users, and more activity, Gowalla still had the recognition of being their rival.
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