I admit there are some things (like trips) that I wish foursquare had, but I just don’t see Gowalla being a mainstream app. I think it will continue to be much beloved by those people who enjoy collecting beautiful digital heirlooms, and forgotten by the rest of us, while Foursquare becomes the next Twitter in terms of user growth rate.

Gowalla is so far superior. The mind boggles why foursquare gets all the press.

One other key comparison that should be an important one to not-yet-established retailers / establishments looking to jump on the geo local app bandwagon.

Foursquare, by it’s gameplay, encourages users to visit the same spots over and over again to achieve mayorship. It is all about being a regular.

Gowalla is all about discovery. A user is far more likely to venture to a new venue and check it out in order to check it off the list.

What is worth more? A stream of new customers or the same ones multiple times?

I’m sure there is a trade-off somewhere.

No doubt this year is going to be the battle between the Geo apps, with Gowalla rolling out BB and Android apps in the forseeable future. I will be watching closely to see which one comes out on top.

What I don’t like is the inability to say anything about locations. I want to know about places my friends love to go to and why they like them. What should I order at restaurants? What days are best to go? etc.

I really like the concept and would love to play along with you all but the mobile site is clunky on my Blackberry and no app yet. Until then, I use FourSquare just to distract me and I actually use it while I play poker as a way to clock in and clock out so I know how long I played.

As a whole, I’ve had two instances where I found a geo app useful. One was a friend checking in at a restaurant I had driven by many times but never been to. I asked him about it on twitter and there was a fun dialogue that came out of it from several locals (including you).