Foursquare vs Gowalla

[captmega]

I loves the gowalla

[j_grouchy]

Gowalla is soooooooo slooooooooooow....

Foursquare is downright zippy.

Otherwise they are pretty much equal to me.

[kuoirad]

Originally Posted by j_grouchy

Gowalla is soooooooo slooooooooooow....

Foursquare is downright zippy.

Otherwise they are pretty much equal to me.

As has been noted to the Gowalla devels...

Gowalla 2.0.1 on webOS lacks performance

It's also been mentioned on twitter a while back.

[Spader]

I've tryed both, and I liked both... however I didn't know anyone using Gowalla and I already had several friends using Foursquare, so I chose Foursquare.

[Lancerz]

Im gonna have to go with Gowalla, its pretty and does everything I need it to do. It made my vacation a lot of fun checking into new places and sharing it with all my facebook friends and family. Tried foursquare and i dont really like it that much.

[acidhax]

Foursquare, only because I've never heard of 'gowalla' before. Besides, its name just doesn't stick.

[arcane]

seems like foursquare is kicking gowalla's *** just about everywhere:

Foursquare Is Five Times Larger Than Gowalla And Growing 75 Percent Faster Every Day

[PreMaster]

Gowalla all the way and here is why.. at the end of the day when you look back at where you have been on foursqaure it looks like a bad herpes rash of blue links and uglyness. Its only focus is to check into 1 area at a time.. where as in gowalla its all about the trips, its all about collecting the pins and badges and finding those little items. Like for example i could checkin to foursqaure in another state like leaving PA going to OHio.. In foursqaure its just some link showing a map.. On gowalla though you get your little WV badge and you get to look back at all your badges, and right there you get a better feel of accomplishment. Foursqaure to me feels just like spamming facebook with ugly links where as gowalla you have something to show. plus the interface is better and theres no cheating. Foursqaure has only 1 advantage in that it renders the map on facebook while gowalla just uses the links. So yeah Gowalla all the way baby!

[retroblu]

used to use both, like Gowalla at first cause of it could always find places Foursquare couldnt until i found the search option, and then for some reason Gowalla couldnt locate certain locations, and it became annoying so now i use Foursquare cause of the search feature, and now most of my friends are getting on it, occasionally i will load Gowalla just to see if its improved in locating me and i also cant add a venue, main reason i stopped using it.

[blz2]

Foursquare. I used them both for awhile but faded over to Foursquare and discontinued Gowalla. Foursquare seems to work better for me and more of my friends use it. They both do the same thing for the most part: alert friends of my whereabouts and post my check-ins to Facebook/Twitter (at my choosing). I went with the popular choice among my friends - Foursquare.

And the new easy search is great! I don't even wait for it to find my location. I just start typing and it drops down a list with the letters I've typed. Usually within 2-3 letters, the venue I'm currently at will appear.

[DryBear]

I actually use both, but am leaning more towards Foursquare. Although Gowalla has a IMO prettier interface, and I like the little item drops, its a lot slower than the current version of Foursquare. On top of that, it seems the WebOS Foursquare app has received more updates.

Also, you can create new location in Gowalla, by pressing the "+" button on the bottom of the Pin/Location page. I have created a couple of spots so I know it works.

Another thing is that for both Foursquare and Gowalla, you can just search by typing in in a name (like "L&L Hawaiian BBQ"), and there is no need to press anything for either app - just give it a few seconds and both will automatically bring up a search.

[Reilly Stroope]

Gowalla. I love looking at the history of items. Seeing where they came from and who they've gone through can be really interesting.

[moreismore69]

i've been using foursquare since day one of getting my pp+ in april 10 but i tried gowalla for the last two day, initially i liked the way gowalla was really pretty and had alot of locations, but then i found that it couldn't find me downtown today (where 4sq always does). i was also really interested in making my own trip but then when i was trying from home found i couldn't locate alot of the places that i go almost every saturday to make my trip for this upcoming saturday. i'm not saying i'll never try it again, but maybe after a few more updates

[Deadaim357]

I haven't tried Gowalla yet but I've really gotten into Foursqaure. I'm trying to become the Mayor of the convenience store down the street from me. Like I said I don't know if Gowalla has Twitter and Facebook support but I love that Foursquare does. Especially Twitter. The latest update has made it very speedy when locating me and my GPS accuracy is better. I'll have to give Gowalla a shot to actually provide to this thread.

[Zhephree]

Gotta vote Forusquare on this.

I'm not biased or anything...

BTW, thanks for all the nice comments about Foursquare. It's just something I do in my spare time, so it's nice to see supportive comments about what's basically a hobby.

I'm always working to improve the app, so head to my forum here on PreCentral in the Developers section and let me know if you have any ideas or problems! You can always hit me up on twitter (@zhephree) if you want also.

[mgiven]

I don't even know how this is a debate with Palm Pre users! Foursquare treats us like actual potential users with the ability to add locations and pictures from our Pre. Gowalla has not not given the Pre app the ability to add anything. If we're somewhere and want to check in on Gowalla we have to hope a cherished iPhone user has added the location for us poor little Pre users. If not, we're out of luck. I also hate that everything is in meters and I have no idea whatsoever if the location is around the block or across the state. Yes, I realize the world uses metric, but I'm in the US and Gowalla is in Austin, so gimmie a break. How hard is it to let the user pick their default distance choice (meters/miles) like Foursquare gives users the option to. I also hate the fact that if you're lucky enough as a Pre user that some nice IPhone user HAS added your location that you can be sitting there and still be unable to check in because you're not exactly in the 2 foot by 2 foot box needed to do so. How annoying is it wandering around a restaurant staring at your phone waiting for the golden "check in" button to show up? Besides, you look like an idiot! So yea...as a Pre user I'm voting for Foursquare. It's not as "pretty" with Gowalla's nice icons, but the mayor feature is better than top 10 lists and I'll take functionality over good looks.

Mike

[kuoirad]

Originally Posted by mgiven

I don't even know how this is a debate with Palm Pre users! Foursquare treats us like actual potential users with the ability to add locations and pictures from our Pre. Gowalla has not not given the Pre app the ability to add anything. If we're somewhere and want to check in on Gowalla we have to hope a cherished iPhone user has added the location for us poor little Pre users. If not, we're out of luck.

I dunno what version of the Gowalla app you're using, but I've been merrily adding spots from my phone for a few months now. For sure since 2.0 came out, and I think before that. I added this spot about a week ago: Adult Swim Ad Mural | Austin, TX.

I also hate that everything is in meters and I have no idea whatsoever if the location is around the block or across the state.

A meter is more or less (for these purposes) a yard. It's not that hard. I hate it being in meters too, but it's not *that* big of a deal. Quit being the stereotypical stupid American.

I also hate the fact that if you're lucky enough as a Pre user that some nice IPhone user HAS added your location that you can be sitting there and still be unable to check in because you're not exactly in the 2 foot by 2 foot box needed to do so.

That's not a Gowalla problem, that's a Pre/webOS problem - your GPS doesn't have you in the right place. I see it a lot too, but I know where the blame should go. Usually if you're within 100 yards (meters), you can check in. Unless you're in a *HUGE* spot with too small of a check-in radius or the person that created the spot had a wonky GPS fix as well when they did, it's not (fully) Gowalla's fault.

If you don't like the program, cool. But jeebus, try to learn/understand what's really going on, and not come off as a flaming (in the internet sense) idiot.

I use both, I like both. I enjoy the "scavenger hunt" and pin collecting parts of Gowalla and the points/mayorship parts of Foursquare. We as webOS-based Foursquare users are extremely lucky to have zhephree doing the work he does on the webOS app. I don't think Gowalla has a zhephree analog.

[Zhephree]

Gotta agree with kuoirad here. Gowalla 2.0 does allow you to add spots. It's very odd that they missed that feature from day one, but hey, it's there now, so Gowalla users are set.

The GPS thing is absolutely a hardware issue. The difference is this: Gowalla disables the check-in button until you are close enough and will prohibit a check-in that is too far. Conversely, Foursquare never disables the check-in button and will allow a check-in from anywhere, however, foursquare will not award points, badges, or mayorships to check-ins it determines to be too far away (this is done server-side and not in the app).

So, it comes down to what model you like better. On one hand, Gowalla's cuts down on cheating, but it can also block legitimate checkins. Foursquare opens itself up to cheating a bit more, however, legit check-ins will go in and while you might not get rewarded for a too-far check-in, you can at least still let your friends know where you are, which is the key purpose of a location app.

But, bottom line, the GPS in webOS hardware needs to be improved. I get lots of +/- 24m results, but I get even more +/- 500m and even +/-1000m results.

As for the distances being in meters or user-selectable: I'm a big believer of limiting the amount of preferences to a user down to only the essentials. It cleans up pref panels and makes apps "just work". I'm also a proponent of bringing the metric system stateside. Having said that, I love having the option of using miles or meters. I switched foursquare over to meters recently so I can learn meters a bit better, but having the option is great. Calling someone a "stupid American" because they prefer Imperial units over metric is really harsh. Other than in the scientific community, metric is rarely used in the US so Americans have become accustomed to seeing miles for distances, just as Fahrenheit appears on our thermometers. This is a cultural difference. Complaining about someone preferring imperial units is silly. That'd be like calling a Canadian in the states stupid because they prefer mayonnaise on their fries instead of ketchup.

Different cultures prefer and use different things. Distance units are no different. If I made an app that listed the prices of food in restaurants and only allowed US dollars, European users would be upset. But the US dollar is the currency of business! Stop being a stupid European and convert the dollars to Euros! It's not that hard!

Come on, be a bit more understanding.

BTW, thanks for the kudos!

[mgiven]

For the record I do use both, just prefer foursquare for all those reasons.

I must have missed the last Gowalla upgrade a month ago, but will still hate the meters thing.

Thanks for the tips and insults

[kuoirad]

Originally Posted by mgiven

For the record I do use both, just prefer foursquare for all those reasons.

I must have missed the last Gowalla upgrade a month ago, but will still hate the meters thing.

Thanks for the tips and insults

Glad to have been of service. Sorry to have poked you that hard, the perceived tone (gotta love electronic forums) got my goat a bit. The meters annoy me too, but if you just remember that roughly a meter's a yard, it helps. Doesn't really help me much when watching the Tour de France and they keep talking in kilometers. IIRC, it's 2.2 km to a mile, but that's a little harder to do in your head on the fly...