Facebook "friends" Gowalla to bolster location features

It's no secret that Facebook, despite its social media prowess, has struggled in the location-based social networking. It's Facebook Places feature has been underwhelming to say the least, and is far from a Foursquare-killer.

In what appears to be an effort to possibly grow that location-based service, Facebook announced today that it bought out Gowalla. Facebook has already said that the Gowalla management team will be integrated into Facebook's staff, and the service will be shut down in January.

Seeing as how Gowalla is was the third biggest player in the location-based game, it's safe to say that it is now a two-horse race between Facebook and Foursquare.

However, Gowalla made it clear that Facebook didn't buy any user data, and that existing users will be able to export their information before the shutdown.

It will be interesting to see what direction both companies go now that they are dominating the market, given that the social media buzz hasn't been surrounding location-based marketing for some time now.