Back in December, we ran a post about the “most stalker friendly people on the web.” The main point of reference for it was a leaderboard made by Osnapz, which showed the Foursquare users with the most followers. Now, with Gowalla’s API officially launched, they’ve done the same for that service.
These numbers are interesting because unlike a service like Twitter, both Foursquare and Gowalla make you explicitly accept new followers that you will broadcast your location to. While back in December, it was Robert Scoble who was the most stalker-friendly person on Foursquare, he’s only the 210th most stalker-friendly on Gowalla, with only 54 friends. The most stalker-friendly person on Gowalla is entrepreneur and blogger Wayne Sutton, with 724 friends, according to Osnapz data.
Judging from this data, Gowalla is clearly less social than Foursquare from from a friending-perspective. But that’s hardly surprising given that the emphasis on Foursquare is your friend timeline, while on Gowalla, that’s the fourth tab. And whereas “mayorships” are an important factor on Foursquare, “stamps” (sort of like badges) are a key to Gowalla, which the Osnapz data reflects.
Meanwhile, looking at the Foursquare leaderboard, it’s clear just how fast that service is growing. Back in December, Scoble led the way with 1,768 stalkers (I mean, friends). Today, a user named @elarov is in the lead with over 5,800 friends. Leo Laporte is close behind with just over 5,000, while Scoble is now in third with just over 4,600. Just looking at Scoble’s numbers, he has nearly tripled his followers in just two months.
I’m sure the Please Rob Me guys will have a field day with this data.
[photo: flickr/heyjoewhereyougoinwiththatguninyourhand]