[PommeDeTerre]

I think branding did have some impact on Foursquare becoming more popular than Gowalla, too.

At least the name "Foursquare" consists of real English words that mean something on their own. This isn't true for "Gowalla". It looks and sounds like gibberish.

A few years back, when this area was picking up, a co-worker of mine was talking to us over lunch about these different services. He could remember the name Foursquare right away, but not Gowalla. While trying to remember Gowalla's name, he said that it sounded like "Gorilla", but it was something different. It was only about a week or so later that I figured out he was talking about Gowalla, after seeing it mentioned somewhere else.

I wouldn't be surprised if other people couldn't remember Gowalla's name, as well.