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Facebook closes down Gowalla

Maker of location-sharing app was acquired by the social-networking giant last December.

Steven Musil Night Editor / News
Steven Musil is the night news editor at CNET News. He's been hooked on tech since learning BASIC in the late '70s. When not cleaning up after his daughter and son, Steven can be found pedaling around the San Francisco Bay Area. Before joining CNET in 2000, Steven spent 10 years at various Bay Area newspapers.
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Gowalla has checked out.

Three months after Facebook acquired the maker of a location-sharing app for mobile devices, Gowalla has closed up shop.

Gowalla posted a note yesterday on its Web site informing users of the closure and letting them know they will soon be able to download their person data:

"Thank you for going out with Gowalla. It was a pleasure to journey with you around the world. Download your check-ins, photos and lists here soon."

The app, which launched in 2009 at the South By Southwest conference, reportedly had about 600,000 users a year ago. However, Gowalla had difficulty competing against Foursquare in the market for location-sharing apps.

Some employees of the Austin, Texas-based company were expected to move to Facebook's Palo Alto, Calif., offices to work on the social-networking giant's Timeline feature, sources have told CNET.