4 ms·

A New Gowalla

Stuk 15y ago
I've never used Gowalla, but I've seen a lot of complaints on Twitter that peoples' "stuff" has disappeared. What's happened there?
- ry0ohki 15y ago
  I assume that means the "items" you used to pick up at various locations. They've killed off that whole concept, which used to be novel, but new people probably wondered what was up with getting a "Baseball bat" when you check-in somewhere.
  - gallamine 15y ago
    IIRC Josh Williams said that only a small small percentage of people actually used them.
    - joaovrb 15y ago
      Which is not necessarily true...
      - jacortinas 15y ago
        It is completely true, less than 1 percent of all users were the users who were actively using/dropping/collecting items.
Hisoka 15y ago
They got less traction than FourSquare, and are now pivoting to a less profitable space in travel guides... their apps look nice, and they got a good looking logo, I guess... but this sounds like an app in search of a problem. Gowalla looks more like a social experiment, or a fun project than an actual company right now.
- aspir 15y ago
  Ironically though, Gowalla's new data may likely appeal to advertisers more than ever before. Each interaction is now within a very defined context -- travel and tourism. There's no need to try to filter out locals vs. tourists with this. Companies will know exactly who is using Gowalla and why. These predefined areas will be a huge leg up in negotiations with companies. Actually, you're also off on travel being less profitable. In fact, global travel and tourism is one of the largest markets on the planet, with $919 Bil in expenditures last year[0]. It's also astoundingly broad -- nearly every country on the planet, big or small, poor or rich, has a significant tourism economy. This is the big cash cow that Gowalla's chasing. [0]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tourism http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tourism
- avree 15y ago
  My main issue with adopting Gowalla was that they never let me actually use it. Their Facebook Connect was broken for months—it'd bring you to a text error page; their app crashed repeatedly (and apparently is still doing so on the 3GS with their new update.) Very frustrating user experience.
- suking 15y ago
  Less profitable space? Is check-ins profitable at all?
  - deyan 15y ago
    More narrow sounds more like it :)
  - ry0ohki 15y ago
    Yes, FourSquare has done a pretty good job at monetizing (Sponsored badges, integration with AmEx, etc...) I'm not sure whether they are profitable per say but they seem to have a pretty good road to it if not.
jefflinwood 15y ago
I like the snazzy pull-to-refresh animation in their new iPhone app! Interesting to see their take on mobile+social+local travel guides, but Yelp reviews give me a lot more opinionated information than Gowalla checkins. Not sure if their new stories are supposed to be reviews.
jsavimbi 15y ago
Well, it is a pivot, I'll give them that. And as always their design is superior but if they insist on listing locales like "Cheers" in Boston as a destination in their guide, they're going to find themselves pivoting to something else in the near future.
- ry0ohki 15y ago
  My understanding is the Guides are essentially auto-generated by bubbling up top check-in places. Cheers, while corny, is definitely one of those places most tourists go to see when in Boston.
  - jsavimbi 15y ago
    I have to say that I'd really like to see the data on that. This looks like an unpersonalized kitchen sink attempt to cover everything. You can buy/rent/scrape all the locations, with geo data, from a variety of resources.
    - ry0ohki 15y ago
      You can pull the most check-in places from their API if you want to see it yourself. Just looking at the Pittsburgh guide, it seems like the basic tourist tour we give visitors, and it doesn't surprise me these are also the most checked in places. They also have a few local bars that are not quite so touristy but definitely popular with the smart phone crowd. In another comment of yours you mentioned appealing to the lowest common denominator... I see what you are saying but that also means "the average" person. You are less likely to be wrong suggesting the Cheers bar then a local favorite.
      - jsavimbi 15y ago
        But I'm not the average person and my time is better spent visiting things of value, to me, in a foreign city. It doesn't make me any better of a person to visit Navy Pier, Pier 39, Pier One, Anthony's Pier Four or Piers Morgan just because a large dataset of anonymous people checked in there. And I don't need an app to tell me how great those places are. They hand these guides out at airports, hotels, free newspapers, paid newspapers and the internet. tl;dr: Gowalla wishes they got some of that Where money. I just searched for "marijuana" in Amsterdam and it returned two results. One was the Hemp Museum. You're better off asking a surly local or a fellow tourist.
gallamine 15y ago
I find the new app much more interesting and useful than the old one. I can now create a "story" for a location and indicate who I'm there with, share pictures together, etc. The other thing I like is the new "highlights" tagging feature where you can tag locations with various indicators like: watering hole, or GTD, or "Sketchy" to give folks indicators of what's nice (or not so nice) at a location.
alexmuller 15y ago
> We’re building a social atlas for the world. And we need your help to do it. This makes me think of Dopplr. As somebody who was using Gowalla purely for the check-in-to-see-where-I've-been aspect, I think I'm going to end up a Foursquare user before long. I guess you have to do what you have to do in order to stay alive and hopefully end up profitable.
jonathanmoore 15y ago
I have to applaud Gowalla for taking the risk of changing directions with their platform. Although it is a step away from the check-in crowd, their move is in the direction of how I tend to use Gowalla or Foursquare. If you live outside of urban areas like most people checking in at the same places over and over looses its appeal quickly. The only time I actively use any check-in service is when I'm traveling or at a conference. I'm sure they'll continue to find their way in the new direction, but I like where they're heading. Stellar design too.
deleted 15y ago
[deleted]

Stuk 15y ago

I've never used Gowalla, but I've seen a lot of complaints on Twitter that peoples' "stuff" has disappeared. What's happened there?

ry0ohki 15y ago
I assume that means the "items" you used to pick up at various locations. They've killed off that whole concept, which used to be novel, but new people probably wondered what was up with getting a "Baseball bat" when you check-in somewhere.
- gallamine 15y ago
  IIRC Josh Williams said that only a small small percentage of people actually used them.
  - joaovrb 15y ago
    Which is not necessarily true...
    - jacortinas 15y ago
      It is completely true, less than 1 percent of all users were the users who were actively using/dropping/collecting items.

Hisoka 15y ago

They got less traction than FourSquare, and are now pivoting to a less profitable space in travel guides... their apps look nice, and they got a good looking logo, I guess... but this sounds like an app in search of a problem. Gowalla looks more like a social experiment, or a fun project than an actual company right now.

aspir 15y ago
Ironically though, Gowalla's new data may likely appeal to advertisers more than ever before. Each interaction is now within a very defined context -- travel and tourism. There's no need to try to filter out locals vs. tourists with this. Companies will know exactly who is using Gowalla and why. These predefined areas will be a huge leg up in negotiations with companies. Actually, you're also off on travel being less profitable. In fact, global travel and tourism is one of the largest markets on the planet, with $919 Bil in expenditures last year[0]. It's also astoundingly broad -- nearly every country on the planet, big or small, poor or rich, has a significant tourism economy. This is the big cash cow that Gowalla's chasing. [0]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tourism http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tourism
avree 15y ago
My main issue with adopting Gowalla was that they never let me actually use it. Their Facebook Connect was broken for months—it'd bring you to a text error page; their app crashed repeatedly (and apparently is still doing so on the 3GS with their new update.) Very frustrating user experience.
suking 15y ago
Less profitable space? Is check-ins profitable at all?
- deyan 15y ago
  More narrow sounds more like it :)
- ry0ohki 15y ago
  Yes, FourSquare has done a pretty good job at monetizing (Sponsored badges, integration with AmEx, etc...) I'm not sure whether they are profitable per say but they seem to have a pretty good road to it if not.

jefflinwood 15y ago

I like the snazzy pull-to-refresh animation in their new iPhone app! Interesting to see their take on mobile+social+local travel guides, but Yelp reviews give me a lot more opinionated information than Gowalla checkins. Not sure if their new stories are supposed to be reviews.

jsavimbi 15y ago

Well, it is a pivot, I'll give them that. And as always their design is superior but if they insist on listing locales like "Cheers" in Boston as a destination in their guide, they're going to find themselves pivoting to something else in the near future.

ry0ohki 15y ago
My understanding is the Guides are essentially auto-generated by bubbling up top check-in places. Cheers, while corny, is definitely one of those places most tourists go to see when in Boston.
- jsavimbi 15y ago
  I have to say that I'd really like to see the data on that. This looks like an unpersonalized kitchen sink attempt to cover everything. You can buy/rent/scrape all the locations, with geo data, from a variety of resources.
  - ry0ohki 15y ago
    You can pull the most check-in places from their API if you want to see it yourself. Just looking at the Pittsburgh guide, it seems like the basic tourist tour we give visitors, and it doesn't surprise me these are also the most checked in places. They also have a few local bars that are not quite so touristy but definitely popular with the smart phone crowd. In another comment of yours you mentioned appealing to the lowest common denominator... I see what you are saying but that also means "the average" person. You are less likely to be wrong suggesting the Cheers bar then a local favorite.
    - jsavimbi 15y ago
      But I'm not the average person and my time is better spent visiting things of value, to me, in a foreign city. It doesn't make me any better of a person to visit Navy Pier, Pier 39, Pier One, Anthony's Pier Four or Piers Morgan just because a large dataset of anonymous people checked in there. And I don't need an app to tell me how great those places are. They hand these guides out at airports, hotels, free newspapers, paid newspapers and the internet. tl;dr: Gowalla wishes they got some of that Where money. I just searched for "marijuana" in Amsterdam and it returned two results. One was the Hemp Museum. You're better off asking a surly local or a fellow tourist.

gallamine 15y ago

I find the new app much more interesting and useful than the old one. I can now create a "story" for a location and indicate who I'm there with, share pictures together, etc. The other thing I like is the new "highlights" tagging feature where you can tag locations with various indicators like: watering hole, or GTD, or "Sketchy" to give folks indicators of what's nice (or not so nice) at a location.

alexmuller 15y ago

> We’re building a social atlas for the world. And we need your help to do it. This makes me think of Dopplr. As somebody who was using Gowalla purely for the check-in-to-see-where-I've-been aspect, I think I'm going to end up a Foursquare user before long. I guess you have to do what you have to do in order to stay alive and hopefully end up profitable.

jonathanmoore 15y ago

I have to applaud Gowalla for taking the risk of changing directions with their platform. Although it is a step away from the check-in crowd, their move is in the direction of how I tend to use Gowalla or Foursquare. If you live outside of urban areas like most people checking in at the same places over and over looses its appeal quickly. The only time I actively use any check-in service is when I'm traveling or at a conference. I'm sure they'll continue to find their way in the new direction, but I like where they're heading. Stellar design too.

deleted 15y ago

[deleted]