FACEBOOK HAS ACQUIRED Gowalla, a location service that allows people to ‘check in’ to tell their friends where they are – much like Foursquare.

Facebook acquired the company for an undisclosed sum, however it is understood that it will now close down Gowalla and move its team to work for an upcoming Facebook feature.

The team will work on the social networking site’s new Timeline feature, which will highlight major events in users’ lives, according to CNN.

Co-founder of Gowalla Josh Williams said he was excited to be part of Facebook’s new project, nvonews.com reports. “We were blown away by Facebook’s new developments. A few weeks later Facebook called, and it became clear that the way for our team to have the biggest impact was to work together. So we’re excited to announce that we’ll be making the journey to California to join Facebook,” he said.

Gowalla was founded ahead of its main competitor Foursquare, however it did not keep up the pace with the other location service – which now boasts a 15,000,000 community.

CNN points out that Facebook has already acquired a range of promising startups – such as Beluga, Hot Potato, Drop.io, Snaptu, Digital Staircase - to use their engineers and developers in other projects.