CNN Money reported that Facebook has acquired location-based sharing app maker Gowalla for an undisclosed amount.

Apparently, Facebook intends taking on Gowalla’s team, and is planning to integrate its offerings with the Timeline feature it launched earlier this year. It is not clear if Facebook intends to continue supporting Gowalla as a stand-alone product, although it recently closed the standalone Beluga app, having acquired the developer and integrated its core features in the Facebook Messenger app.

Gowalla recently announced additional content for its app, to build on its check-in and recommendation functionality, and to build its appeal against rival Foursquare. It also tweaked its core check-in feature to allow users to add photos.

Facebook has also looked to make its own entry into the check-in market, with the August 2010 launch of its Places feature – alongside a Deals discount and couponing services designed to enable it to monetise this. However, the company earlier this year dropped Places as a stand-alone feature, instead integrating check-in with its core social networking functionality.

The news comes as Facebook also appointed a head of mobile developer relations. Taking up the role is James Pearce, who previously worked at HTML5 tools developer Sencha.

Earlier this year, Facebook began work to enable developers to integrate Facebook features into iOS and HTML5 apps, in a move designed to “drive the discovery and distribution of apps using Facebook Platform.”