Gowalla....Goodbye Old Friend

Sometimes you need to give up the applications you love to use, especially if you are the only one left using it. I am sorry to say, Gowalla it’s you. We’re breaking up.

We often carry extra apps on our smart phones/tablets that don’t get used that often. Some are for productivity, some for fun and others don’t really have much use at all. From time to time we need to weed these useless ones out to make room for great new tools, and there are definitely plenty to choose from.

I have been trying out a few location based tools for over a year now, like foursquare, Gowalla, SCVNGR and others. I try to ‘check-in’ as much as I can, which is great fun because it shows you location based deals, information about friends and is similar to a game, but the playground is the city you’re roaming.

Austin, Texas is the home of Gowalla and seems to have a great following there, but that didn’t seem to make the app more appealing to me when I went for SXSW this year. I aggressively checked-in at every possible opportunity with both Gowalla and foursquare in order to help push the virtual goods. However it didn’t seem to have an effect, and I’ve come to the unfortunate conclusion that there is only room for one check-in service, and foursquare, hailing from NYC, seems to be it.

I think a few reasons for Gowalla’s lack popularity seem to be:

– No one that I met in SXSW was using it, which is a big deal since it was developed in Austin.

When I checked into sessions and events with both applications, there was a considerable difference. While Gowalla had 67 people checking in, foursquare had 350+. Gowalla had hardly any locational data on happening events, and how do you get wisdom from a crowd when there is no crowd?

– Stats and common sense say that Facebook is King, while foursquare and SCVNGR are close runners up in comparison to Gowalla, which is basically off the radar. Note: This is based on funding and valuation. Not user-base.

– foursquare consistently posts new tools that I can use in my business, are very service orientated and email me back to help me around bv02. They engage.

– Gowalla offered me the ability to check-in to other tools like foursquare. A blatant sign of defeat and capitulation.

– Lastly, but most importantly, it’s a pain in the ass to check-in on too many services. Period.

However, as with all break-ups a few kind words should be said in parting.

Gowalla, you did a lot of things that I liked:

Nice design and clean layout
Events flamed when people were grouping together to gather ‘hot topics’
Badges were personalized and could be traded
The application for my iPhone worked very well

So with that in mind, I’m going to keep my account open in the hopes that Gowalla will find that magic that will bring our relationship back to life. For now, we need to part ways. I will delete your app to make space for all the new relationships and tools I want to try this year.

So Long and Goodluck.

Love,

@Andrew_milne

Follow me on foursquare, or better yet stop by the bv02 HQ and check in, I will buy you a coffee. Let me know which location based tools you are trying. There are some really good ones coming online. Get in the game.