Don’t look now but the Foursquare vs. Gowalla showdown is getting more intense with the added intrigue of major suitors expressing interesting in perhaps purchasing one of the two clear standouts in the geolocation landscape.
The two services were formally launched at SXSW 2009 in Austin and both used the 2010 event to try and distinguish themselves from the competition. Mashable has served up some interesting metrics that indicate that clearly Foursquare maintains the upper hand today.
The numbers from Viralheat indicate Foursquare is getting over 4 times the amount of buzz in the major social media chatter. Interestingly, Gowalla appears to be generated more positive discussion compared to their bigger rival.
From personal experience, I initially had a much more positive experience with Foursquare with their terrific Android app than dealing with Gowalla’s clunky mobile website. It was easier to see a quick satisfaction from the check-ins with Foursquare and the idea of mayoral privileges really kicked in. Since I am in the major metro of Houston, it was fun competing with other in my town on the weekly scoreboard. But frankly, the Android app really hasn’t shown significant improvements over the past few months.
On the other hand, I wasn’t crazy about the pokemon-style game of Gowalla. It didn’t make much sense and there really wasn’t a great way for me to grasp what was supposed to be accomplished in the game without me diligently searching out details myself. That’s a challenge that comes with early adoption on any app until it gets widespread enough usage. It wasn’t until a couple of months ago that the Alamofire team in Austin finally leaked an Android beta. Frankly it was awful and remains so clunky today in its fully released form that I generally stick with the mobile web instead. But once I got the hang of chasing the items, it has quickly jumped to my favorite of the two. Now granted, I live in the Gowalla stronghold of Texas. But it is has become addicting trying to find the missing items in my vault. The addition of events that remain open for just a day has added a new dimension to the Gowalla experience.
What I have been most frustrated by in both players is there relative lack of interest in their Android apps. Both have outstanding iPhone products that sport outstanding features like adding pics that we Android users can only watch from a distance and admire. Considering the accelerating growth of the Android platform, I would hope one of the two companies would start showing some equal support.
It should also be noted that the latest rumors in the industry surround the potential purchase of Foursquare by Facebook. In fact, the latter surprisingly did not announce a geolocation-based feature at the f8 developer conference this week. That’s led many to surmise it was because they didn’t want torpedo a potential purchase. It certainly adds some intrigue to the discussion. Both Foursquare & Gowalla are likely riding their buzz to a higher price. Who could blame them? In the meantime, Gowalla has to play catch-up but this game is far from over.
So which one has tickled your fancy thus far?
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