Location-based services are great tools for exploring new places and seeing what places your friends are visiting. Now that mobile devices and mobile web browsing have become so incredibly popular, more people are discovering the value in “checking in” to different places from their smartphones.
Gowalla and Foursquare are among the most popular location-based services. Although they are both very similar, each service has a few key features that helps them stand out. Here are some of the main differences between the two services. See for yourself how they measure up against one another so you can choose which one might be best for you.
Gowalla Mobile App
Gowalla has an interesting feature called “Guides,” which are location-specific collections of hotspots and interesting places to visit in certain cities. This is something that Foursquare does not have.
Unlike Foursquare, everything on the Gowalla app shows up in color, including the logos of each business or place you’re at. When you want to notify you’re friends where you are, you simply press the “I’m Here” button at any place.
Foursquare Mobile App
Foursquare doesn’t have “Guides” like Gowalla does, but it does have an “Explore” option, which allows you to discover new specials, restaurants, nightlife and trending spots. Likewise, Foursquare keeps its color scheme very consistent, which could arguably be better for navigation.
Foursquare uses its own logos, such as a small picture of a fork and knife to let users know that a particular venue is a restaurant. Gowalla uses actual business logos for its platform.
When you are visiting a certain place, you simply press “Check In Here” on Foursquare. You’ll notice that Foursquare also incorporates events (such as a list of movie titles at a movie theatre venue) and shows “X people are here now” when you check in.
Gowalla Reward System
Each location-based service incorporates some type of reward system as an incentive to keep checking in to new places and to continue playing the game.
Gowalla’s main features include Spots, Trips, Pins and a Leaderboard. You can earn specific badges for checking in to Spots and Featured places that were created by Gowalla. You can check in to places created by you to earn additional special badges. These are called Trips. Other users who check in to Trips created by you can also earn something called “Pins”. Pins are almost equivalent to “Badges” earned on Foursquare, representing venues where you check in.
There are no “Mayorships” on Gowalla as opposed to Foursquare, but Gowalla does have a Leaderboard for tracking check ins for yourself and for your friends. This shows you who has checked in the most times and how many times they checked in at a particular venue.
Gowalla also has a little bonus feature, called “Items.” These are icons you find as you explore places and check in to different venues. You can use your Items to drop them at a new venue and become the founder of that venue. Alternatively, you can trade them with your friends on Gowalla, which may be an ideal strategy for trying to collect them all.
Foursquare Reward System
Foursquare’s main reward system involves Points, Badges and Mayorships. You can earn special badges according to where and how many times to check in at a particular venue. For example, checking in to the same place at least three times in one week can earn you the “Local” badge.
You can earn “Mayorships” by checking in to the same venue more times than anybody else. Once you have checked in enough times to beat everyone else’s check ins, you will become the “Mayor” of that venue and your name will appear on that venue’s check in page. If someone is already the Mayor, you can steal their Mayorship by exceeding the existing Mayor’s number of check ins. Likewise, somebody else can also steal Mayorship away from you if they check in more frequently, exceeding your number of check ins.
The Foursquare Point system and Leaderboard shows you how many points each friend has earned for checking in to places and ranks everyone in your network by points earned. Points are earned by checking in to venues.
One of the biggest things that sets Foursquare apart from Gowalla is its “Specials” feature. Business owners can create promotions such as deals or discounts as an incentive to people who check in to their venue. An orange “Special” icon is displayed under every venue’s name which has a Special applied to it.
Gowalla or Foursquare: Which Is Better?
Neither one is exactly “better” than the other, however at this point it seems that Foursquare is the most popular location-based service. If you prefer Gowalla but still want to feel included with Foursquare (and get the Specials), you can set up your Gowalla account so that it pushes your check ins to Foursquare as well. This can save you time from checking in with both services, while still getting credit from both Gowalla as well as Foursquare.
