Gowalla

This application is a lot like Foursquare in that it is a geo-location tool. You can see where your friends are and where you’ve been in the past. You can collect pins and items that people “drop.” It’s a good way to learn a city and know about hot spots and get tips.

However, in smaller towns this application is definitely not as affective as it would be in say, Chicago, or other larger cities. There are less people that actually play along with “dropping items” for you to find. There are also fewer locations that people have added in smaller cities and towns. I found myself adding a lot of locations to the application. That just means there aren’t many people using it in my area.

In terms of journalism it’s a good way to learn about the area you’re in if you’re not familiar with your surroundings. It’s also a good way to connect with others in your immediate area. It’s more of a game than Foursquare, but there’s no becoming mayor in Gowalla.

The user interface has a better design that FourSquare, but for an application that is all about finding friends it fails, simply because you (probably) won't find as many friends using Gowalla.