Comments on: Gowalla’s new “stories” aren’t stories at all

By: Carlos Pacheco

Carlos Pacheco — Fri, 07 Oct 2011 16:41:42 +0000

Before the relaunch I had become a Gowalla devotee and had basically stopped doing direct foursquare check-ins. One of the main features I really loved about Gowalla was the comments feature that let you place comments in places and direct them to specific friends in Gowalla who would check in. This was lost with the new Gowalla and the way the service has evolved is not what I would have hoped for, I did my best to get into it but I soon realized that Gowalla has become more of a “special events” type of location base social network… I’m not going to bother checking into my daily boring activities with Gowalla, only special occasions like trips or events. Gowalla has limited the amount of times I feel I want to check in with them. Something I don’t feel with Foursquare. I afraid this was the wrong path to take. Gowalla has basically become PATH!

By: Ryan

Ryan — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 00:25:13 +0000

I’ve been a Gowalla devotee since the very beginning, but the new “Gowalla 4.0″ is such a convoluted mess that I intend on deleting my account. They’ve removed items… they’ve removed check-ins… I have very little incentive to use their app from now on.

By: Lappen

Lappen — Thu, 29 Sep 2011 17:47:04 +0000

I think the review(s) in the appstore/market says it all… This is a fail in my book and apparently in many other users also…

By: Michael Bauser

Michael Bauser — Thu, 29 Sep 2011 14:52:27 +0000

Gowalla seems to get less sensible as they evolve their product. They’re trying to convince users that people don’t want the quick “I’m here” check-in, when Foursquare pretty much proves that people love the quick “I’m here” check-in. And then, they don’t even implement the “story check-in” very well!

(You can tell a better “story” with a Facebook photo album, which leads me to another thought. Gowalla releasing their “story” apps the same day Facebook redefines itself as “the story of your life” is pathetically bad PR timing. Absolutely nobody at Gowalla has ever had a clue about public relations or marketing. Half of Foursquare’s early success was out-marketing Gowalla.)

Honestly, this redesign feels a little like Gowalla setting itself as an acquisition target. Their last hope for the company may be selling themselves (to a travel company, maybe) that needs a travel-guide/photo-sharing app.

By: Sam Edwards

Sam Edwards — Thu, 29 Sep 2011 13:50:40 +0000

I gave up Gowalla at the beginning of this year and even uninstalled it. Is there anything that was built on the Gowalla API other than Wallabee? http://bendodson.com/projects/wallabee/ Ben even gave up that project for various reasons a while back.

I think the ideal thing to be able to choose the 1st checkin and the last checkin of a trip and then create a “story” of everything that happened in between. Who’s going to make that foursquare app?

By: sam

sam — Thu, 29 Sep 2011 13:21:26 +0000

I’m very confuse with the new gowalla.. I don’t event know if I’ve already checked in to a venue or not. And tell u the truth I need a few minutes just to realize how to check into a venue everytime I open the app. Weird upgrade if I can say. Wrong move. I wish there’s a way to go back to the old gowalla app.

By: Marcelo Romera

Marcelo Romera — Thu, 29 Sep 2011 12:48:03 +0000

I think they lost the oportunity to get more users and maintain the actual ones. After the app upgrade, I first saw and understand how it works and it makes useless to me, so my second step was uninstall the app.

By: Street Fight Daily: 09.29.11 | Street Fight

Street Fight Daily: 09.29.11 | Street Fight — Thu, 29 Sep 2011 12:46:37 +0000

[...] Iâ€™m concerned and the guides are nice, but have a long way to go to become really useful.” (AboutFoursquare)Hyperpublic has some big news today that should catch the eye of developers looking to do anything [...]