GeoHackr • com

So, it seems as though Gowalla, a competitor of FourSquare, has entered the Android market with a beta version of a native app. After reading an article at TechCrunch, I had to see what the fuss was about.

If you are anything like me you love the new location-based apps out there. Being a GeoHackr, I absolutely love being able to track my where-abouts easily with applications like FourSquare. Gowalla has had a native app for the iPhone platform for quite a while, but there was only the web-based application for the Android platform; so I could never try it out, until now.

I have to say that it has a very similar feel to the FourSquare app that is already on the Android platform, but the Gowalla app is definitely still in beta. I have a hard time finding any locations near me, where I don’t have that issue using FourSquare.

I am just wondering how many of these apps people can take? There is Twitter, BrightKite, FourSquare, Yelp, Gowalla… each and everyone of those websites now have some sort of checkin function. You can spend the better part of a visit to any restaurant checking in alone. As for now, at least until there is an official release by Gowalla, I am going to stick with FourSquare. I think the interface is excellent on the Android platform, and I actually like building my badge collection up!

If you want to try this beta yourself, click here. You will need to have the ability to install “non-market applications,” but that is easy enough to do.