Previously, I wrote about why I prefer Gowalla over FourSquare.  If you’re not sure on what Gowalla or FourSquare are, they are location based social networking sites.  The main gist is that as you go to stores, malls, movie theaters, school, and so on you “check in” at those locations.  On Gowalla you can find, drop, and pickup items, while on FourSquare you get points for checking in.

The reason I prefer Gowalla to FourSquare was quite simple, you could check in from anywhere and you didn’t have to know the address because the Gowalla iPhone application relied on the GPS in the iPhone to mark the spot.  FourSquare’s requirement that you input an address was both annoying and (to me) a major reason to stop using the service.  Well as of about two weeks ago, FourSquare announced that they would all you to check in from anywhere and that the next iPhone application update would use the GPS component to check in with, entering a address was now optional.

Since this change, FourSquare’s iPhone application has seen more use from me.  It’s still not on my first iPhone screen (Gowalla’s not going away anytime soon), but it’s on my second and I have found the overall experience of FourSquare to be much more enjoyable then before.  Gowalla still has a better overall user experience in my opinion, its more consistent.  Also, being from Texas, I have to give a little love to Texas companies and Gowalla is stationed here.  So for the time being I’ll use both services.  I still like FourSquare’s game better than Gowalla’s.  The point system on FourSquare is nifty and the mayor concept adds just a little more competition amongst friends.  The people at Gowalla have long proven that they are not just sitting around so it will be interesting to see how the combat FourSquare’s latest changes.