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Facebook buys Gowalla

money.cnn.com

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Re: Facebook buys Gowalla

#81

Post by simonw »

oldstrangers wrote: post #58
pmf wrote: post #49

Facebook has now the best design team in the valley. Hands down. Gowalla plus Made by Sofa plus Push Pop Press

Facebook does have a solid design team, but I wonder where all that talent is being directed? Visually, their hires in the past year or so haven't made an impact with facebook.com. At least with Google's new design team, you can see what they're doing. So, one has to ask, what are these people working on? A facebook phone? Facebook X.0?

Have you seen the new Facebook timeline thing? It's a pretty supeb piece of product design, and it looks really nice too.

Re: Facebook buys Gowalla

#83

Post by mythz »

harryh wrote: post #42
whalesalad wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I dislike your lack of humility and modesty in this discussion. You may be correct in your A point, but "just hiring a couple of engineers/designers/product folks" remark makes it sound like you guys are some elite squad, and FB is picking up some stragglers to join their team. I can see why you've taken this attitude though, since commenters here are attacking Foursquare and making you seem like you lost to Gowalla+…

Oh, I think that the team at gowalla is great, and I have mad respect for them. But in terms of facebook's overall hiring this is a relatively small deal. Don't really know how many folks FB hires a year but I'm guessing hundreds? Sorry if I was curt. Just trying to be clear and concise.

The clear message without the PC Sugar coating communicates fine with me as-well. Also agree that it's primarily a talent Acquisition.

Re: Facebook buys Gowalla

#84

Post by uptown »

simonw wrote: post #81
oldstrangers wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Facebook does have a solid design team, but I wonder where all that talent is being directed? Visually, their hires in the past year or so haven't made an impact with facebook.com. At least with Google's new design team, you can see what they're doing. So, one has to ask, what are these people working on? A facebook phone? Facebook X.0?

Have you seen the new Facebook timeline thing? It's a pretty supeb piece of product design, and it looks really nice too.

Path's new implementation of the timeline looks and feels more mature in my opinion.

Re: Facebook buys Gowalla

#85

Post by blankenship »

pmf wrote: post #49

Facebook has now the best design team in the valley. Hands down. Gowalla plus Made by Sofa plus Push Pop Press

Just as a point of clarification, Facebook has an incredible existing product design team, but the last year's new hires/acquisitions have yet to prove if all the new blood adds up to the best, e.g. just because you hire a bunch of amazing individual designers, it doesn't mean they're automatically and amazing team.

That said, I have a lot of faith in their culture that they will become so; team-building is just never a given.

Re: Facebook buys Gowalla

#86

Post by moses1400 »

a5seo wrote: post #69
moses1400 wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I moved my company to Austin from NYC a year ago. Not one event have I been to where Gowalla was mentioned.

I'll second that. Gowalla was in Austin in name only. Zero presence at any events, no penetration of the startup networks. They moved to Austin from Dallas, I hear, at the behest of investors.

It's interesting how many startups are based here yet Gowalla got the huge press whenever Austin was mentioned. I wonder why this is - is it because of the Foursquare competition initially? Because they launched at SXSW and were a local company?

Re: Facebook buys Gowalla

#87

Post by jen_h »

melissamiranda wrote: post #63
pmf wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That fact is 100% right. As a designer Im aware that design won't save the world. Foursquare had a huge moat since ever, and thats all that they need.

Foursquare always had a better design. Hear me out: Design is about 2 things: how it looks and how it works. Gowalla always had a prettier coat of paint, pretty interactions. But what mattered more was the design of the game - becoming mayor on Foursquare was easier to grasp and get addicted to than dropping the original Gowalla teddy bears. Coat of paint and nice UI doesn't always win.

Foursquare also beat feet to win the hearts and minds of small business owners - I've lost count of the number of bar and restaurant owners excitedly telling us about how the Foursquare rep came in to talk to them, pointing out the sign on the wall where the "Mayor goes," arguing with regulars over who's the Mayor this week, who cheated to become the Mayor last week, and so on.

We've travelled a lot, and this happens coast to coast in big cities and small.

I've always really dug Gowalla (when I check in, typically only around an event like SXSW, it's what I've used), but when real people are talking about you in real life (an initially slow, but snowballing and very effective advertising model), all over the country--you end up winning.

Re: Facebook buys Gowalla

#88

Post by _delirium »

SkyMarshal wrote: post #67
harryh wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh, I think that the team at gowalla is great, and I have mad respect for them. But in terms of facebook's overall hiring this is a relatively small deal. Don't really know how many folks FB hires a year but I'm guessing hundreds? Sorry if I was curt. Just trying to be clear and concise.

Fwiw, you were perfectly clear. Anytime someone says "Facebook/Google/Awesome-Tech-Company-of-the-decade bought them as a talent acquisition" , the obvious implication (and compliment) is that the talent is really talent . Don't know where this confusion is coming from.

It's a tricky connotation based on context, but I read it as sometimes more positive than others. It does imply that the talent in question is quite talented, and worth paying significant money to acquire, but it also sort of implies that the product/company wasn't in itself particularly great or interesting to the acquirer.

Re: Facebook buys Gowalla

#90

Post by caseysoftware »

oldstrangers wrote: post #16
kainosnoema wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is definitely a big loss for Austin. There are still a few interesting startups in the area, but Gowalla was the one that made it a serious contender.

Evernote just moved in. We also have Facebook and Google offices.

Ebay/Paypal are investing big time in area too. I've chatted with a few of their recruiters to help.
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