(Image source: Inquistr)

BY ADAM FALK
ANCHOR MEGAN MURPHY

Gowalla’s checking out of Austin and into Palo Alto. Facebook bought the number two check-in service Friday. Mashable reports.

“It’s not clear how Facebook will integrate Gowalla’s technology. …  The service was similar to that of Foursquare, but Foursquare has a much larger user base — 10 million vs. Gowalla’s 2 million. Facebook currently lets users check in to locations via Facebook Places.”

But before Gowalla users panic about giving up user data to Facebook, the formerly-Austin-based company says...

“Gowalla, as a service, will be winding down at the end of January. We plan to provide an easy way to export your Passport data, your Stamp and Pin data (along with your legacy Item data), and your photos as well. Facebook is not acquiring Gowalla’s user data.”

OK, but Digital Trends adds Gowalla city guides will likely become collateral damage.

“Those city guides that both the site [and] its users spent so much time curating aren’t likely to make their way to Facebook. We can’t imagine the social network is interested in weaving in this type of feature.”

Some are speculating that the Gowalla group could be rolled into Facebook Timeline. TechCrunch says with that group’s talent, that makes sense.

“[They] could help create compelling content for the profile Timeline based on the Places checkins of users. This was Gowalla’s core strength...”

But as The Wall Street Journal says, that’s only when we actually see timelines go live.

“...they were going to give us timelines, which would be a new venue for personal expression and recording our whole life story...They were supposed to be coming in a matter of weeks, but it’s December and they’re not here yet...”

So is this how the check-in challenge ends? A writer for the Los Angeles Times says the fight with Foursquare is over, but Gowalla’s employees have a promising future.

“Clearly it's not the way Williams and his team had hoped things would turn out. But working
for Facebook, which is on the verge of a $100-billion initial public offering, is surely a nice consolation prize.”