According to this Mashable article Facebook bought Gowalla but not their service, technology or user data. They’re getting just the people. About 30 of them if Wikipedia’s information on Gowalla is accurate. I would image Gowalla’s employees had an opportunity to opt-out of the transition so the final total is probably less than 30.
I really like Gowalla as a check-in service. The design of their iPhone app was far and away superior to Foursquare’s. It’s a shame to see this service just disappear into the ether. But we all know better doesn’t always lead to more popularity. Maybe they saw the writing on the wall and decided it was better to go to work for Facebook than let Gowalla die a slow death. Maybe they’ll be able to bring some of their design sensibilities to Facebook. We’ll see.
