Technology

Facebook acquires Gowalla

6 Dec, 2011 By: Andrew Sheivachman

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One of the innovators in location-based social networking will shut down after being acquired this week by Facebook. Gowalla was one of the first social networks that enabled users to "check-in" at a location and weigh in on their experience. Several members of the Gowalla team will begin to work for Facebook in the near future.

TechCrunch reports that the loss of Gowalla means that Foursquare is now the preeminent social network based around mobile location sharing and publishing opinions on the go. "Both Foursquare and Gowalla launched at the 2009 SXSW conference, and many people thought Gowalla was actually better designed," writes TechCrunch's Erick Schonfeld. "At least it looked better, with more whimsical badges, for instance. But pretty doesn’t always win."

Facebook sent an email announcing the acquisition and shuttering of Gowalla, reports Reuters. "In talking with the Gowalla team, we realized that we share many of the same goals: building great products that reach millions of people, making a big impact quickly, and creating new ways for people to connect and share what's going on in their lives," Facebook said in the release.

The Street reports that this is most likely an effort by Facebook to acquire the engineers behind Gowalla and lead Facebook to a more prominent position against Foursquare. "But for the most part, the acquisition is likely about snagging top-notch engineers," writes Tom Taulli. "In Silicon Valley, it's extremely tough to find mobile software engineers, and Gowalla certainly has a rich talent pool, which has built across platforms like Google's Android, Apple's iOS, and Research In Motion's BlackBerry."

Topic : Facebook, Gowalla
External Source : TechCrunch, The Street, Reuters