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Location Battle, Round 2: Foursquare and Gowalla both update iPhone apps!
By now, most people know that Gowalla and Foursquare have been going blow-for-blow in the location-based social gaming fight. Despite entries from Google, Yelp, and (soon) Facebook, these two services have the strongest iPhone apps out there right now. But if you're only going to sign up for one, which one should you pick?
Both Gowalla and Foursquare have their plusses and minuses, so read on for a comparison of their new iPhone apps (which both updated on Tuesday ... ooh, drama!) and decide for yourself.
Gowalla
Although Gowalla is the (relatively) new kid on the block, it's actually more fun than Foursquare in a lot of ways. The design is gorgeous, and you can pick up and drop various objects when you check in at a location. This aspect of Gowalla makes it more like an actual game than Foursquare.
Signing up and finding friends is a snap with Gowalla, as it lets you search your address book and a bunch of other social services to add people you know. It also seems to have a larger location database than Foursquare. For example, Foursquare has the zoo in my city, while Gowalla has each individual exhibit.
Gowalla also includes a "trips" feature that Foursquare doesn't have. You can set up lists of locations for your friends to visit. Trips really aren't that big a deal, and they don't seem to be publicly searchable (yet?), but they're good for setting up pub crawls and other group events.
Gowalla doesn't have "mayors," or any kind of comprehensive leaderboard. It does have a leaderboard for each individual location, and it offers the ability to see who else has checked in there, viewed as a sort of activity screen. The main drawback of Gowalla is something you might see as an advantage: there's GPS policing, so you can't "cheat" by checking in at a location when you're not nearby. The only problem is that you have to remember to check in when you're within roughly 70 yards of the spot, or you lose your chance.
On the other hand, the GPS for Gowalla seems to be a lot more precise than Foursquare's. During my test run, I could literally watch the distance to my destination count down as I approached. Gowalla also told me which direction I should be walking, and showed a mini-map to guide me. User experience knockout!
Foursquare's not down for the count yet, though ...
Foursquare
I think of Foursquare as the more social of the two apps. When I want to find my friends for a night out, I turn here instead of Gowalla. The slick-looking recent update adds a contact list, which makes locating your friends a snap, even if you have tons of them.
Foursquare's game aspects don't run as deep as Gowalla's. You can become the mayor of a location by checking in there more often than anyone else, and earn badges by visiting specific types of locations. Foursquare has always placed emphasis on encouraging people to explore cities, rather than taking the "game" angle. A lot of venues have started offering specials to Foursquare players, especially repeat visitors and mayors. If you're looking to use a location app to facilitate real-life social interaction, this is the app for you.
You can also read and write "tips" about the venues you visit. I've seen everything from menu recommendations to the all-important bathroom keycode posted as Foursquare tips. Especially in larger cities, tips are an invaluable aspect of the Foursquare experience.
Who Wins?
That depends on you. If you're looking for a social game, emphasis on the GAME, you're going to want to check out Gowalla. If you're looking for a social game that emphasizes the SOCIAL, you want Foursquare.
Of course, looks matter, too! Check out our gallery of the newly-updated Foursquare and Gowalla iPhone apps, and make the call yourself.
Comments
5
Subscribe to commentsCraigMar 12th 2010 12:41AM
Well for me and all non-iPhone users, I think 4square is definitely the way to go. Gowalla is missing out on the whole market of mac-haters. Gowalla is fun, if you're so bored you want to play games with yourself, but 4square seems much more useful. Gowalla does has a cool design, thanks to it being from Austin a traditionally hip/trendy design/web city, but 4 square is more practical. I checked in on Gowalla twice, then I got tired of logging into the site and going to my profile and then posting where I was, too many steps. 4square starts right up on my HTC My Touch - Android phone. For me 4square is the more useful of the two. I can play games at home, or even on my phone if I really feel inclined too
rekincolesMar 12th 2010 1:28AM
Yeah, weird. The settings on my newly downloaded 1.7 version still say 1.6.1. Seems like a glitch - this is not the full update that we saw a glimpse of a few days ago.
Jay HathawayMar 12th 2010 1:19AM
I had to download twice to get 1.7. Give it another shot, and it may work.
Anthony GentileMar 12th 2010 9:44AM
The main reason that i use Gowalla over Foursquare is that Gowalla will work anywhere, where as with Foursquare you need to be in a major city which they support.
JoeMar 12th 2010 12:11PM
Foursquare has expanded beyond major cities. A while ago, in fact. I live in the suburbs, and I've been using Foursquare since I read about the change months ago.
As for Gowalla, while I feel they're interface is very nice and clean, their recent update looks more like the recent Fourquare update than their own app. Nothing wrong with that, though, as the recent Fourquare update is pretty awesome. As for those "precise" GPS points: in my experience that is not only annoying due to the strict requirements of how close you have to be, but I've often found the point to be wrong. I was standing in a local Starbucks, but it told me to check in, I had to walk 400 feet away.