I really liked Gowalla in its prime. Sadly when they announced their change-up and morphed into something else entirely, I found myself drifting. I reluctantly found myself using Foursquare to fill the resulting void.

Crushing to invest so much time and effort curating new spots and chasing new stamps only to be abandoned and thrown out. I guess I was still holding out that their little experiment would turn out to be some tragic mistep, ultimately rectified.

Perhaps even more tragically comes news that Gowalla is to disappear entirely, swallowed by the behemoth that is Facebook (Which increasingly reminds me of the bad old AOL days - it’s becoming “the internet” for a lot of people).

Gowalla, as a service, will be winding down at the end of January. We plan to provide an easy way to export your Passport data, your Stamp and Pin data (along with your legacy Item data), and your photos as well. Facebook is not acquiring Gowalla’s user data.

I wish the developers of Gowalla all the very best in their new home. Vale Gowalla.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

4 Dec 2011