Facebook gossip that it purchases Gowalla - By: Sanna Nasser Sheikh

The most dominant social network website Facebook is going to purchase Austin-based Gowalla, a location based social networking site. Most of the Gowalla's employees will move to Palo Alto, Calif. Some few number of team members will stay in Austin and be housed at Facebook's downtown offices on West Sixth Street.

In 2009 when it was launched at the South by Southwest Interactive Conference and Festival, Gowalla gives permit to its users "check in" on smartphones at their current locations and broadcast their whereabouts to friends.

In September, Gowalla disappeared from that have to highlight social guides and its partnerships with companies such as Disney. It had provided location services at Disney parks.  In 2009, Rival Foursquare, a New York-based social-networking check-in site, also launched at South by Southwest and it has long dominated it.

Gowalla spokeswoman said, "We do not comment on rumors or speculation."

According to CNN, most of the native team, including CEO Josh Williams, will move to Palo Alto to help Facebook develop their new Timeline feature. Despite raising millions in recent years, Gowalla wasn't able to knock rival Four Square out of the ring, and has recently redressed itself as more of a discovery tool rather than a simple check-in service.

An unidentified Gowalla insider reported, "It's a perfect match. As far as the big picture, Gowalla's vision is about people telling stories, and Facebook's vision for Timeline is about stories about important moments in life."

Gowalla had about 2 million users in September, compared with Four square’s 10 million.