Frisky Mongoose

Both of the main location aware programs, Foursquare and Gowalla are vying for your check-ins and attention as they both head into South by Southwest in Austin, TX next week. Both are programs that want to track where you go and share it with your friends to create on the fly social hookups.

To fire up the competition even more, both are revving up their efforts to gain more user attention. Gowalla has prettied up their website with an easy explanation of how the service works and why you should use it, large icons depict where users can use the app (mobile devices running iPhone, Android and Blackberry) and a neat feature showing a bunch of Live Check-ins. Also redesigned were the user profile pages much in the same way the home page was done.

While Gowalla is redesigning their existing site, Foursquare is adding quite a bit of new features such as categories. Categories help Foursquare figure out exactly what type of places you’re visiting. This is neat because it will help you locate specific places much easier than before.

These two services are in hot competition right now and that is only a good thing. When competition arises between two companies over the same concepts, we win out because of the competitive force that drives them to create new features and services.

Related posts:

1. SXSW Was All About the Location
2. Foursquare Not Rushing to iPad
3. Thursday Throwdown: foursquare, Gowalla or MyTown? You Decide!
4. Checking-In With Check-Ins: Gowalla Still in Race, Foursquare Planning Choose Your Own Adventure?
5. MyTown Goes International, Google Hinting at Gowalla Acquisition?