Categories: Business

Facebook acquires travel service Gowalla to help improve Timeline feature

Facebook has reportedly acquired Gowalla, a travel check-in service used to share and discover interesting places, for an undisclosed sum, according to a CNNMoney report published early this morning.

The report suggests that the majority of Gowalla’s employees will be relocated from their current base in Austin, Texas to Facebook’s offices in Palo Alto, while a handful will remain in Austin and work out of Facebook’s local office there.

According to Gowalla’s website, the company currently employs 29 people – Facebook often use acquisitions as a means of sourcing great talent.

It’s understood that Facebook’s new arrivals will work solely on Facebook’s Timeline feature, which has yet to be rolled-out globally. CNNMoney’s anonymous source described the deal as a “perfect match”, and “as far as the big picture, Gowalla’s vision is about people telling stories, and Facebook’s vision for Timeline is about stories about important moments in life”.

It’s not yet known whether Gowalla will continue to exist as a standalone app, although it may likely follow a similar fate to recent purchases like Beluga and Hot Potato, which folded into Messenger and Places respectively.

The acquisition has not yet been officially confirmed by Facebook, who offered the usual “we don’t comment on rumor and speculation” response.

Albizu Garcia

Albizu Garcia is the Co-Founder and CEO of Gain -- a marketing technology company that automates the social media and content publishing workflow for agencies and social media managers, their clients and anyone working in teams.

View Comments

  • wow, I hadn't heard of gowalla's purchase, facebook is really on a buying binge so afraid to get left behind! now that it has the cash it is willing to spend it like a drunk sailor! once there are shareholders we'll see how they feel about this.
     
     
    http://workface.com/e/robertrowshan

Recent Posts

OpenAI submitted models to the hardest math test yet for AI

OpenAI published its proof attempts on February 14 for First Proof, a challenge put together…

1 day ago

The hidden costs of sedentary work: Why prevention starts at your desk

We all know that a sedentary lifestyle is harmful to our health. But recent studies…

1 day ago

Solving the headache of migrating cloud-based mailboxes for the enterprise

As organizations increasingly operate across hybrid and cloud-based email systems, migrating enterprise mailboxes has become…

1 day ago

Digital ID, programmable money pave way for ‘dystopian hellhole, horrific totalitarian regimes’: ESN at European Parliament

Digital ID, programmable money like Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs), and AI are paving the…

3 days ago

Elon Musk says tariffs make solar artificially expensive in the U.S. But there is much more at play: Op-ed

Earlier this year, Elon Musk was direct about what comes next for the global economy:…

4 days ago

Britive Unified PAM Integrates with New Extended Plan for AWS Security Hub

Britive, provider of a unified privileged access management (PAM) platform, today announced its unified PAM…

4 days ago