Go as in AWAY from Gowalla

For those of you that don’t know I have been an avid user of Gowalla (and Foursquare) for well over a year. I first started with checkin apps when I discovered Foursquare, I loved the concept of being able to track where I had gone for my personal benefit but also I enjoyed sharing cool places I went to with others that I socialized with. When I discovered Gowalla I was impressed and felt they took the Foursquare concept to the next level with the addition of pins and really nice looking stamps and badges that you could collect for your Gowalla page. Sure these weren’t real tangible but I still thought it was neat. For a months I would check in on both Gowalla and Foursquare. Then Gowalla came out with what I thought was the killer app they incorporated a way to checkin to both them and other sites at the same time, I no longer had to spend time checking into two applications. Since then I’ve been almost exclusively a Gowalla user (except when I checked on Foursquare to make sure I got checked in).

Unfortunately today my use of Gowalla ends. It appears with the next version of Gowalla 4.0 they have transitioned their business away from the checkin application and decided to become a travel guide. Now when I log into Gowalla and attempt to checkin to where I am the first list of 20 or so places I see are “Recommended places”. Which is Gowalla speak for places that have paid us money to make sure you see them instead of where you actually are. That’s great Gowalla, good for you! You have discovered a business model that has completely alienated they majority of your userbase, the locals. If I wanted to use Gowalla as a travel guide I shouldn’t be forced to use it that way because although I love Disneyland I don’t need to see every Disneyland location near me instead of the places I am actually next to.

Why did you fuck up so bad? Because you didn’t actually try it out with your CORE users before you screwed it all up. Changes like this are something you test out with users that are willing to try out new things, you don’t just change it and tell your users to deal with it. Wait that isn’t exactly what you said. You told the users reading your blog that there has been a “Fabulous response”, I don’t think you are reading the same response I’m reading, because the majority of the responses on your blog have been negative. You have completely alienated the userbase that created the database you now use as your travelguide. More power to you for taking advantage to our two years of patronage to create yourself a business model that will be the end of you.

Bye Gowalla.

Related articles

• Gowalla Updated To Version 4.0 – Removes Features, Adds Force Closes (androidpolice.com)
• Gowalla 4.0, Their Bold Revamp Towards Travel And Stories Goes Live (techcrunch.com)
• Gowalla flips its check-in service to be a social atlas for the world (thenextweb.com)
• Gowalla removes its defining features: Items and Notes (thenextweb.com)

First off with the start of the NCAA College Football Season I have to kick off my links with this awesome video.

USC opens their quest for the Division 1 championship on Saturday at 12:30 PM (pacific).  Talking about college football anyone that loves college football should really check out my friend Brian’s website, In the Bleachers, the #1 College Football blog and podcast in the world!

Food

Tactical Bacon, there for you when you need it!

I already know how to cook a whole chicken, but I’ve never cooked a whole one in a slow cooker, it’s a great way to get it done with minimal effort.  I’d also suggest checking out the main $5 dinner site, she does a great job sharing the wealth on the ways she’s able to make good cheap family diners.  Bacon is the coolest thing on the internet since sliced bread, and now you can make sure you are able to enjoy the salty smokey goodness of bacon during the next natural disaster with Tactical Bacon!  (thanks to my friend Dippy for the link).  And while you are eating your bacon, why don’t you learn how to cook up a bunch of hard boiled eggs in the oven… Wait are those oven cooked eggs?!

Interesting
According to Carnegie Mellon‘s Death Risk Rankings, the chances of a age 30-39, white, male, from California dying in the next year is 1,537 out of 1,000,000 (wait I fit that description!).  In addition here at the top 5 and the number out of 1,000,000.

Cause of Death – MicroMort
Total – 1,537
Accidents – 408
Circulatory system diseases – 187
Suicide – 173
Cancers – 143
Infectious and parasitic diseases – 141
Homicide – 101

Geeky Stuff

Time Travel!

I love this travel time-line that someone put together based on popular TV shows and movies (I’ve included to the left for those too lazy to visit the site.)  If you’ve ever wanted to check if your favorite user name is available at 130 websites all at one time, then namechk is the site to go.  Warning it could be used for both good and evil!  Good in the fact that you can find 130 websites to register your user name at, bad for the fact that you can find 130 websites to register someone elses user name at so they can’t!

Funny Stuff
Kelly and I are thinking about having a child…  Actually no we aren’t but what better way to bullshit your way out of work and responsibilities than the Office Kid, complete with pictures and drawings!  If having a fake kid isn’t your idea of funny then check out the People of Walmart a place to see pictures of those interesting individuals that shop the crappiest store on earth.

Tech Stuff
Just an FYI for those that keep sending me MMS messages to my iPhone, Sept. 25th is the big day that I will actually be able to see them from my phone!  About damn time AT&T!

And lastly I leave with you a couple more videos.

Pretty cool Old Spice commercial (I really enjoy their advertising and commercials)

College Humors modern take on West Side Story with Web Site Story!   I highly recommend checking it out!  You got to go to their site I can’t embed it.

From the OC Register Science Dude.

Week of space station sightings starts tonight

February 1st, 2009, 1:50 pm · Post a Comment · posted by Gary Robbins, science writer-editor

The International Space Station will be visible each of the next six nights, including a rare six minute pass over on Wednesday, NASA says. The first of the sightings begins at 6:38 p.m tonight (Sunday) and will last for two minutes. You’ll first see the station 10 degrees above the north-northwest. It’ll be traveling north.

Here’s the rest of the sightings:

Monday: 2 minute fly over, startng at 7:06 p.m. Look 10 degrees above the northwest.

Tuesday: 5 minute fly over, starting at 5:58 p.m. Look 10 degrees above the north-northwest.

Wednesday: 6 minute fly over, starting at 6:26 p.m. Look 10 degrees above the northwest.

Thursday: 1 minute fly over, starting at 6:57 p.m. Look 12 degrees above the southwest.

Friday: 3 minute fly over, starting at 5:50 p.m. Look 42 degrees above the west-southwest.