Gowalla Officially Shuttered

Location based social networking service Gowalla finally said its farewells and shut up shop over the weekend. The company was acquired for an undisclosed amount by Facebook back in December, with the Gowalla team reassuring users that personal data and information wouldn't be moved over in the acquisition process.

The company has promised that they will provide a way for users to download their "Passport", which contains photos and other information, although no timeline or method for doing so has been laid out yet. Facebook's acquisition is for the underlying technology and overall service, with Gowalla posting on their blog that Facebook will not be obtaining any user information.

Gowalla was first launched in 2009 at SXSW alongside rival Foursquare. It sported a more refined user interface, although Foursquare has gained more traction with users overall. Investors originally put in $10 million into Gowalla, and although details of Facebook's deal aren't available, Jason Calacanis, one of the original investors, claims the deal has been done with Facebook shares, and that his return is ultimately less than what he originally put in.

If you didn't already export your data from Gowalla before they shut down, you'll have to wait until they offer up their own tool for doing so. No word on exactly when that will land, but keep an eye out on their website.

[via The Next Web]