Foursquare vs Gowalla
The first difference that I noticed was Gowalla allows you to post and view pictures of a location, that other users have posted. With Foursquare there are no pictures, but people do leave tips. These are great if you are going somewhere new and want to learn more about it before you go. You can also check nearby tweets and see what is happening around you with Foursquare. Foursquare allows you to get pings from your friends if they are nearby. I didn't see any way to ping someone if they are nearby on Gowalla I also noticed that on Foursquare you can text, call, email, send a tweet or facebook connect to a friend as long as they included that information in their profile when they signed up. On Gowalla you can only post a comment or tweet someone. Foursquare also allows you to mark a place as closed or incorrectly placed. I like this option, I hate looking forward to going somewhere only to get there and find its no longer in business. I didn't see anything in Gowalla that allowed you to do that. Both apps give out badges or stamps for meeting certain goals. I do like the Trip activity on Gowalla, the idea is they suggest places to go in an area or city and then you mark them off as you go, sort of like a scavenger hunt. Unfortunately, their idea of nearby seems to be anything within a 1,000 miles. Gowalla also offers challenges, like check into X number of tech startups or check in at ten or more coffee shops are just some examples. Foursquare doesn't have anything like this.