A couple of weeks ago, Gowalla announced that they were removing support for their items feature. I was completely stunned. What can they possibly be thinking, getting rid of their defining feature, the one that distinguishes them from FourSquare?

Goodbye, Gowalla

But let’s go back.

I loved their product from the beginning. As an early adopter, I submitted bug reports, submitted tickets about duplicate spots, and left comments about the lovely custom icon they made Zappos (waaaay before companies had to pay for custom icons). Gowalla was well-designed and beautiful (especially compared to FourSquare).

I loved Gowalla so much that I worked hard to convince my friends to start using it. Most were already using FourSquare and asked why they needed to use two location-based apps. Two reasons, I said. One: it has better design. Two: the items made the app so much fun.

Thinking about it later, I realized the genius behind items. When I first began using Gowalla I only used it to check in to places I had never been before so that I would receive a new stamp. But that was all – I opened the app, checked in, and closed the app… 15 seconds max. Once I understood the idea behind items I became hooked. I started checking in at places I had already been to and went to every day (work, Starbucks, the gym, etc). I realized that Gowalla was giving me something in return for the free data I was giving them – the excitement behind whether or not I would receive a bonus item after checkin. I also realized that I was using the app longer as well – checking to see what items were at the places I checked in at, looking to see what items my friends had, etc.

[NOTE] I remember seeing a tweet from the official Gowalla account about how “WELL MAYBE IF YOU GUYS EXPLAINED TO YOUR FRIENDS HOW ITEMS WORKED WE WOULDN’T HAVE HAD TO REMOVE THEM.” I tried to find it again but it looks to have been removed. Ummm, really? Our responsibility to explain and figure out how your shit works?

Being such a huge fan of Gowalla, I didn’t think there was much they could do to piss me off. I don’t care if only .05% of their users are using the items feature, and I certainly agree with the chatter on Twitter about how that probably happened because Gowalla stopped paying any attention at all to that feature and started making it less and less prominent in app releases. Yeah, of course users aren’t going to use a feature you don’t explain and that is difficult to use in the iPhone app.

Anyway, needless to say, I stopped using Gowalla the day they announced items would be no more. It’s been removed from the home screen of my iPhone and I’ll likely end up permanently deleting the app (I just haven’t had the heart to do it just yet) as it’s no longer any use or fun to me. I’d be curious to know if Gowalla noticed any usage decrease after announcing that they’ve dropped support for items.

[NOTE] Did anyone catch the bitter in my voice?