Remember Gowalla? 

They were that “other” geolocation company that had set themselves apart by creating really cool high quality badges and a separate check-in experience from Foursquare. I began my geolocation journey began with Foursquare, transitioned to Gowalla for quite a while then found my way back to Foursquare after Gowalla changed and a few dabbling in Path and Sonar. I never jumped onto the Facebook Places check-in craze, other than to check into the Gap to get a free pair of jeans.

Near the end of 2011, Facebook purchased Gowalla for an “undisclosed amount”. Some of the team were folded into the Facebook offices and it was rumored that they pulled a number of the team into the Timeline team as they prepared to roll out this feature to users and eventually to brands. After these reports came out, it wasn’t long until your ability to use Gowalla disappeared and their offices in Austin, TX were closed (march 10, 2012 to be exact).

Remember Beluga? 

Beluga was that app where you could hold group messaging conversations through SMS style. Belugua was not as widely known as Gowalla but in its short life, it made a strong impact with its technology around group conversations. It wasn’t too long after the acquisition that the messaging features on Facebook increased and then eventually the service was shut down.

Remember the Other Companies? 

It is a pretty common move for companies to acquire other companies, keep the teams and technology, and then shut down the initially purchased company. You can see a list of the companies purchased and shut down by Facebook on this Wikipedia page.

So, now we get to Instagram

Today, reports came out that Instagram will be purchased by Facebook for $1,000,000,000 (yes that is 1 Billion Dollars). So what does this mean for Instagram? Will we see this app take on the same departure as the other companies? Will our photosharing experience be forever changed, which will cause us to seek out other sources? My prediction is that we will see Instagram get folded into a photo application built within the Facebook app. My other prediction is you will see Path take off further, as we see Instagram disappear into the Facebook family.

While this is a disappointment for avid Instagram users, this is part of the technology game. I have huge respect for Kevin Systrom (CEO of Instagram) as he followed his heart and intuition as they created Instagram. Now he is receiving a huge reward for his hard work, as well as the other 14 employees of the company. The people and companies who invested in Instagram will also receive a large payout for their belief in this little app. This is why they got into this business and handle some losses; all while celebrating the ones that reap a large ROI for their efforts in supporting this startup.

Congrats to the Instagram team! It has been a fun time being and avid user!

You have shaped how people build apps for photos and video sharing. Thanks!