The team behind Gowalla, the Texas-based location service that lets people share where they are using their mobile phones, is set to join Facebook. Gowalla cofounders Josh Williams and Scott Raymond will join the social networking giant’s design and engineering team. They, along with several other Gowalla members, will move to Facebook in January.

Started in 2009, Gowalla is a mobile application that allows people to share their location, favorite places and what they are doing by “checking-in” with friends. People can score points by checking-in multiple times to the same place and create a visual picture of their day using the service.

Facebook said in a statement it was not acquiring the Gowalla service or technology, but that it was “sure that the inspiration behind Gowalla will make its way into Facebook over time.”

In a Gowalla blogpost Williams said, “Three years ago Gowalla’s journey began when I took a photograph of Lake Tahoe on my iPhone. I had just finished a phone call with my dad, and I wanted nothing more than to share that photo and place with him. Not just in a text message or status update sort of way, but with a bit of weight that said “I wish you were here” and “this moment and place are meaningful to me.”
“We created Gowalla to inspire people to go out and share those places, photos and stories.

The past three years have been quite the journey, oft-times in a very literal sense! The Gowalla Passport has become a record of all the places we’ve visited, the people we were with, the photos we took, and the stories we told. Many of you even use Gowalla like a scrapbook of sorts — a place to keep all those memories.”

“About two months ago, my co-founder Scott and I attended F8. 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!”