mobile social networking

Check-in service Gowalla was always prettier than mobile social network leader FourSquare, but it still could never catch up with its rival. Its new version, Gowalla 3, could change that: It allows users to easily check in on multiple social networks and track friends across them. Goodbye, check-in fatigue; hello competition.

Check-in phenom Foursquare just passed 3 million users, a milestone that cements its growing lead in mobile social networking. But how did it outrace competitor Gowalla, which was born at the same time and with arguably better technology? By having the right real world social networks, of course.

Last week restaurant review site Yelp rolled out a Foursquare-like system of badges awarded for mobile check-ins by reviewers. Yelp is just the latest player to take on mobile social networking leader Foursquare but may provide the stiffest competition to date. Here's why.