

A New Gowalla - creativityhurts
http://blog.gowalla.com/post/10513121010/a-new-gowalla

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jonathanmoore
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.

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gallamine
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.

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alexmuller
> 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.

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jefflinwood
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.

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

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ry0ohki
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.

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gallamine
IIRC Josh Williams said that only a small small percentage of people actually
used them.

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joaovrb
Which is not necessarily true...

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jacortinas
It is completely true, less than 1 percent of all users were the users who
were actively using/dropping/collecting items.

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Hisoka
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.

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suking
Less profitable space? Is check-ins profitable at all?

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ry0ohki
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.

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jsavimbi
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.

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minikomi
Have to agree.. Tokyo is not showing me the most inspiring list of
destinations. I'd like an app has these kinds of lists, weighted by how long
someone has lived in a city.. I can't help but feel there's a low hanging
fruit there for "off the beaten path" travel guides. Simply ranking by number
of check-ins is not so novel..

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buss
I'm applying to YC this round with an idea very similar to this. We're aiming
to help locals make travel guides for their own cities.

What other things frustrate you about finding things to do in a foreign city?

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jsavimbi
Urbandig?

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buss
Oh, that's an interesting app. I didn't find that while looking for companies
that do this already.

Our solution is a bit different - namely avoiding curation by a few people.
We're frustrated by how difficult it is to find things to do in a new city,
and we want to get locals to help (after all, the best way to visit a city is
to visit a friend who lives in that city). Think crowdsourced walking tours.

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jsavimbi
Yes, I've looked into that. Much better than the standard walking tours with a
(mis)guide dressed up in pre-Industrial garb. It's a very interesting concept
for those interested in trying something new, but maybe hard to get over the
fear-factor for the average tourist, who mind you, won't hesitate to fork over
$32 for a tour in an aging water bus.

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buss
Can I ask what you found out when looking into it? Did you consider doing
something in this space and decide against it?

We can take this discussion off HN, too. My email is in my profile.

