Gowalla?

Well I’m trying and I’m trying but I’m just not ‘getting’ Gowalla.

Gowalla is a location-based iPhone/Android app that allows you to ‘check in’ wherever you go; its successful, especially in the US where it has thousands, maybe millions of users.

You unlock pin badges for meeting certain types of challenges such as ‘check in at 10 different locations’, there are trips recommended by other users that you, yourself could then undertake (checking in as you go) and at the end you will receive a pin badge to add to your passport to prove that you did it.

It’s all in the aid of fun, or at least it would be if anyone in the UK was actually on the app, there’s just nobody on it – where’s the promotion?!

Everywhere I check in it seems I’m the first person to check in there for maybe 12 months, sometimes longer. Most places, especially local to me don’t even exist on Gowalla and so I took it under myself to add plenty of local ‘hot spots’ that I regularly visit to the app.

Also where are the list of challenges? It would seem that an app that is based around checking in and receiving pins for your efforts would have a list somewhere, either on the app, the website or both that would list what pins you could unlock? Not just the one’s you’ve already unlocked – This seems crazy to me.

I first heard about Gowalla at the Build Conference in Belfast last year, that was literally the first time I had ever heard of the service, and even then when I was desperate to check in (to get the Build pin and be entered in to a competition to win an iPad) I couldn’t sign in, the app is beautifully designed but extremely buggy – It can crash a lot.

I really want to keep using the app, but it seems that both foursquare and Facebook Places aren’t helping Gowalla to get a foot hold in the UK, plus the app is rather buggy (but that should be easy to fix, right?) makes the whole thing a real shame – I want to keep using it, but what’s the point if nobody else is?

Feel free to add me anyway, you might keep me hanging around!