Three months after its acquisition by Facebook, Gowalla has officially shut down. Gowalla was a location-based check-in service that directly rivaled foursquare. Both Gowalla and foursquare launched at SXSW in 2009. Three years later during SXSW 2012, the plug has officially been pulled on Gowalla's service.
SEE ALSO: Facebook's Plans for Gowalla Revealed
With the shift to Timeline, Facebook is attempting to give users a service to document their lives, rather than simply discuss what is happening on one day. Facebook software engineer Alex Wyler wrote of Facebook's push to include more details on shared content, "Starting today, location and friends can be added as properties to any photo, link, or status written from an app. This is similar to the functionality a user has when they add a photo or updates their status."
While we will see hints of it integrated into Facebook, Gowalla is gone. Users will soon be able to access and download their Gowalla content, but will they transition to foursquare for future check-ins?