Gowalla 3 integrates with Facebook and Foursquare

2 Dec 2010

Popular geo-social network Gowalla today revealed its most significant release yet, Gowalla 3, which enables faster check ins and allows users to keep up with their friends on Foursquare, Twitter, Tumblr and Facebook Places.

The company has revealed a new mobile interface that makes it easier to check in but also integrate with other geo-social tools, like Foursquare and Facebook Places.

“We’ve made checking in at your favourite places even easier with a new, faster check-in interface,” said Josh Williams, founder of Gowalla.

“We debated calling this ‘quick’ or ‘express’ check in, but it doesn’t really need a gimmicky name. We just made it better. Simply tap the Check In button that is universally present in the tab bar and based on your previous history and current location, we’ll auto fill where we think you are.

“We get it right about 80pc of the time. In the cases where our best guess was a little off, it’s super easy to select the correct location with a couple quick taps. Then you can quickly and easily share where you are with your friends on Gowalla, Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare and Tumblr.”

Single activity feed

In particular, Gowalla 3 integrates Facebook and Foursquare posts by friends into a single activity feed.

“A new Highlights feature is now baked into Spots pages on the iPhone. You can view the Highlights that have been added to a spot in addition to adding your own. And in addition to our own Highlights, you can even read tips from Foursquare if they’re present at that location.

“Next, we’ve added a fantastic new feature called Bookmarks,” said Williams.

“With Bookmarks you can use a bookmark to flag a favourite spot — or perhaps just a spot you wish to visit in the future. You can quickly pull back up your bookmarked spots from the Spots tab. We even use bookmarks to help us determine where you are when you use the improved check-in feature. We think you’ll find this very handy.”

Leave geo-tagged Notes for special friends

Gowalla has also revealed a new Notes feature that allows users to leave a Note for a specific friend (or for yourself) at any location.

“They’ll receive it the next time they check in there. Use it to leave a menu recommendation (the queso will make you feel alive!), to welcome someone to your city, as a reminder for yourself (don’t forget the bottle of wine) or even to leave a love note for someone special,” said Williams.

Gowalla 3 has also added better support for the Retina display on iPhone 4 devices.

John Kennedy is a journalist who served as editor of Silicon Republic for 17 years

editorial@siliconrepublic.com