There is currently much hoopla around foursquare and their offering with the recent release of that service in London, but I found it to feel exclusive to those who live around a major metropolis like London or New York. For me, I have discovered a new player on the block called Gowalla. The concept is simple. You use the GPS function of the phone to pin-point your location and allow you to check in. Then you can 'claim' that location as your own, but with different terminology attached to each of these services. That is about the only place where these two services are similar.

Where I sway towards Gowalla more is their implementation of a sort of scavenger hunt concept. You start out with a set of items in your account that you can drop at locations when you check in. If you are the first you bascially 'claim' that location as the founder. Anyone else who visits that location can check in and has the option to swap something from their items list with that which was dropped by the last person.

If you are like me and are a founder on many locations, sooner or later you run out of items that you can drop. No worries there because you are occasionally rewarded with new items. But the fun doesn't stop there. They have put into the mix the concept of 'Trips' that you can embark on. These are pre-defined landmarks or routes that you can travel on and collect your stamps along the way as you check in. It really invites you to get out and see new things.

I travelled to Washington DC soon and already had found several sites of interest through Gowalla that I visited and checked-in at, all categorized neatly by:

• Architecture & Buildings
• Art & Culture
• College & Education
• Entertainment
• Food
• Nightlife
• Parks, Nature & Recreation
• Shopping & Retail
• Travel & Lodging

Each spot in Gowalla comes with its very own page that lists who has visited, what was dropped or picked up, a google map of the area and who created the spot. All of these nifty little icons and locations you collect are stored as stamps in your Gowalla virtual Passport.
Aside from that the service has all of the usual expectations including Facebook and twitter integration, but what stands out the most is the general design and feel of the service. It is a jazzy kind of experience. The graphics pop and are very well done layed nicely upon a green themed background that is very subtle allowing the colors from the icons and text stand right out.

So for me, I am going to go with Gowalla. Foursquare is good for you city-folk, but if I want to explore and collect things, I have to Go-Go-Gowalla!

*all images from the Gowalla website