Foursquare not your thing? Well, then maybe its virtually identical counterpart, Gowalla, may do the trick for you. It’s now available in beta form for Android users.
For those who do not know what Gowalla is, It’s a location based social-networking application that lets you share where you are, and the activities you are doing with your friends. Much like Foursquare, Gowalla lets you ‘check-in’ to a place once you’ve entered the location, and you earn stamps on your passport as you go along. In comparison, Foursquare gives you badges as you check into new locations.
As a Foursquare user, I was pleasantly surprised to see the interface of Gowalla very clean, and nice on the eyes. Three tabs appear on top; Activity, Spots, and Passport. All very simple and to the point. One thing that stands out between the Gowalla and Foursquare application is that next to every location listed in Gowalla is an icon depicting what kind of place it is. (ie; cocktail glasses for certain bars, and a mini taco and pepper for theEl Tonayense taco truck) With Foursquare, you only get location points next to venues, which is no deal breaker by any means, but you can easily see where the application could improve. Aesthetically, at least.
With either application, there will be give and takes. With Gowalla, I like the design and interface. With Foursquare, I like that I can add a tip to a venue if I so choose. For those still trying to figure out how in the hell the two services are different, here is a good reference. For now, I’m still trying to figure out if I like Buzz or not, so Gowalla will have to wait.
You can grab the beta Gowalla app here.
[Via: androidguys ]