As the old saying goes, if you can’t beat ’em, join ’em, or in the case of Gowalla vs. Foursquare, if you can’t beat ’em, integrate your location based services with them. Gowalla’s newest update gives users the ability to share check-in information with Foursquare.
The feature joins the applications ability to share locations with Facebook and Twitter users, providing friends with your location based info on various GPS enabled devices including tablets, mobile phones and other portable electronics that support Gowalla services.
The update, called Gowalla 3 adds what the company is referring to as a “universal activity feed” which shows a users friends check-ins on the Gowalla service, along with Facebook Places, Tumblr and Foursquare. Users retain the ability to choose what sites receive their updates and what services they receive information from.
Gowalla CEO Josh Williams told CNN:
The aim was to “create a solution that allows people to connect with all these services without having to launch four different apps,” adding, “We’re still early enough in the space that everyone has a different flavor and take on it. Different people are going to migrate to different services.”
What do you think about this newest integration, from an all inclusive standpoint it makes sense, it makes me think of programs like HootSuite for Twitter, allowing users to control their location based services from a centralized location which could come in handy as more wannabe startups join the fray.
Here’s a look at the new simple to use integration feature:
