Gowalla and Foursquare Release Some Killer Features Right Before SXSW
11 Mar
Please note: My brother and co-founder in VaynerMedia, Gary Vaynerchuk, is an investor / advisor for Gowalla
This weekend I will be heading down to Austin, Texas to attend the interactive portion of South By South West. This will be my 3rd trip down and every year I have attended, my networking experience has been dominated by mobile. The first year? Twitter. Year two featured a combination of Twitter and Foursquare and this year will most likely be 40% Gowalla, 40% Foursquare, and 20% Twitter. In preparation for this usage, I went ahead and downloaded the latest versions of both Foursquare and Gowalla. After playing around for a bit I figured I would add some input regarding the major points for both release:
Gowalla made a major update to their user experience. The app focuses much more on the check-in experience and friend activity, and far less on items. The major improvement to the overall experience is the inclusion of comments and pictures with check-ins. This update will definitely improve the SXSW experience.
Foursquare’s major play was the inclusion of “trending locations.” I am not sure if this was included in a previous update, but this functionality alone will make Foursquare a must use during SXSW. Gone are the days of texting around to see which party is either too packed or too empty – nice touch.
Have you downloaded the latest versions of Gowalla and Foursquare? If so, let me know what you think!
