Battle of the century?

Foursquare and Gowalla, two of the most-hyped companies at this year's South by Southwest Interactive Festival (SXSWi) in Austin, Texas, are pretty tough rivals: both of them want to own the hot "geolocation" market, the big new thing in social networking.

And at SXSWi, both companies were throwing parties. On the same night. Around the corner from one another.

On Sunday, a design firm called Jess3 decided to get cheeky by sticking up posters around Austin for "The Geolocal Showdown," pitting the two Monday parties against one another like a boxing match. The poster depicts Foursquare co-founders Dennis Crowley and Naveen Selvadurai as "The Two-Headed Monster," and Gowalla CEO Josh Williams as "The Ultimate Underdog."

March 16, 2010 8:53 AM PDT

Photo by: Caroline McCarthy/CNET

| Caption by: Caroline McCarthy