THIS JUST IN…
Now you can tap into the travel wisdom of your friends. TripAdvisor(R), the world’s largest travel site*, today announced the launch of its groundbreaking “TripAdvisor(R) Trip Friends” feature, allowing travellers to get advice from their Facebook(R) friends on TripAdvisor to plan their next vacation. Supplementing the site’s more than 35 million reviews and opinions from real travellers around the world, the wisdom of crowds on TripAdvisor is now enhanced by the wisdom of friends, delivering personalised recommendations.
“As the world’s largest travel site, we’re thrilled to continue revolutionising the travel industry by providing our community with exciting new access to their friends’ valuable advice about travel,” said Steve Kaufer, founder and CEO of TripAdvisor. “With TripAdvisor Trip Friends, our 34 million monthly visitors can tap into their friends’ wealth of travel knowledge with just a few clicks, making holiday planning more fun, social and personal.”
How TripAdvisor Trip Friends Works
When researching a destination, hotel, attraction or restaurant on TripAdvisor, users who have logged in using Facebook will now see a list of their friends who have been to that location, as identified via TripAdvisor’s Cities I’ve Visited (CIV) application on Facebook Platform. Travellers can tap into their network of friends for more details, by directly messaging their friends, or by posting a message to a group of friends, to gain the unique travel insights from those who know them best. CIV has been one of the most popular travel applications on Facebook Platform for nearly three years, with more than five million monthly active users, and highlights over one billion destinations that CIV travellers have visited.
“Travellers using TripAdvisor Trip Friends will be amazed to see all the places about which their friends can offer highly relevant, personal travel advice-from that extra tip about the best place for croissants in Paris (your friends know how much you love croissants), to insights on the best scuba spot in Belize (through TripAdvisor Trip Friends, you discovered that two of your friends recently returned from an awesome scuba trip in Belize). This feature will turn great trips into fantastic ones, with convenient, personal input from people you know best and trust most,” said Kaufer.
Ellen Barone is an American writer and wanderer. She co-founded and publishes the group travel blog YourLifeIsATrip.com and is currently at work on her first book "I Could Live Here".
Need to find the perfect hotel in Los Angeles? One click. Want to read up on the Best Trendy Tables in New York? One click. Looking for a destination spa in Paris? One click. A new website, Night + Day Guides has just made its destination website even more user-friendly.
Night + Day Guides covers the world’s coolest cities: Amsterdam, Athens, Barcelona, Chicago, D.C., Las Vegas, London, Los Angeles, Madrid, Mexico City, Miami, New Orleans, New York, Paris, San Francisco, Shanghai, Sydney, and Toronto.
Ellen Barone is an American writer and wanderer. She co-founded and publishes the group travel blog YourLifeIsATrip.com and is currently at work on her first book "I Could Live Here".
NEW: Guides to Affordable Getaways
Check out these picks at TripAdvisor.com for your best local getaways, all under a gas tank away. Just tell em’ how far you want to travel, and they’ll show you all the top places to eat, sleep and play!
VERY COOL!
Ellen Barone is an American writer and wanderer. She co-founded and publishes the group travel blog YourLifeIsATrip.com and is currently at work on her first book "I Could Live Here".
Hey world travelers, check out this info-packed blog article by Scott Carmichael on Gadling.com outlining money-saving alternatives to making phone calls when you’re abroad. It’s filled with practical tips to help simplify common communication problems for travelers. Have your own solution, share it here!
Bon Voyage…
Ellen Barone is an American writer and wanderer. She co-founded and publishes the group travel blog YourLifeIsATrip.com and is currently at work on her first book "I Could Live Here".
According to PCWORLD, Over 85,000 phones, 21,000 PDAs and 4,500 notebook computers are left behind in taxis every year. Well, now there is an easy way for someone to turn those items in as well as have them returned.
Founded in 2004, Atlanta-based ImHONEST.com is a non-traditional lost and found service that provides identification and recovery for items of value. In addition to offering an affordable and user-friendly solution for owners to proactively label and register their valuables, ImHONEST.com makes it easy for the finders of lost items to act on their honesty.
Two of the most common reasons that lost items are not returned to their owners are the inability to identify the owner of the lost item and the lack of an easy way to return the found item. The ImHONEST.com system, with its user-friendly label registration and reporting system, solves both of these issues. ImHONEST.com makes it easy for finders of lost items to return the items to their owners by providing:
- Personalized labels containing a unique ID code
- Choice of toll-free and online “found item” reporting
- Over 4,000 drop-off locations at all of The UPS Store® locations
- Pick-up service from any residence or business location
- Support for international shipping of found items
- A gift rewarding the finder’s honesty
In keeping with the company’s mission to promote honesty and aid those in need, 20% of the online purchases of ImHONEST.com labels are donated to charities. Before finalizing an online purchase, customers choose a charitable organization from a list that includes organizations such as World Vision, Doctors Without Borders and March of Dimes.
Ellen Barone is an American writer and wanderer. She co-founded and publishes the group travel blog YourLifeIsATrip.com and is currently at work on her first book "I Could Live Here".
Today, a new Microsoft-backed site called PlanetEye launched an innovative online travel planning service that allows users to organize and schedule their travel planning needs under one roof.
Planning a trip can be extremely time consuming, involving visits to dozens of sites and sifting through hundreds of search results before you finalize all the pieces together for your trip. PlanetEye’s goal is to put an end to the frustrating and time-consuming process people suffer when planning their trip online.
The site features a powerful and easy-to-use planning tool, rich geotagged photographs and leading edge mapping technology. They also have extensive travel content from a team of in-house writers and external professional sources.
At the core of PlanetEye’s travel planning service is the Travel Pack that lets travelers “clip” the interesting photographs, attractions, hotels and restaurants discovered on PlanetEye when they are planning a trip or simply putting together travel ideas. Users can look at their Travel Packs as a list or on a personalized map.
It’s easy to introduce local flavor into your Travel Pack by adding PlanetEye’s top-rated selections on where to stay, what to do and where to eat. As well, PlanetEye provides valuable editorial content from a list of “Trusted Sources” to enhance your planning process.
After returning from a trip, you can upload photos to your Travel Packs, rate the places where you stayed, dined and toured, and then share your Travel Pack with friends, family and other travelers. (or opt to keep them private)
Once you’ve created your Travel Pack, you can also book your flight and hotel and car rentals, easily make restaurant reservations (OpenTable), buy tickets to events and attractions (StubHub), book a spa appointment (WaySpa) and more.
Click here to give it a test-drive.
Source: Online Communications
Ellen Barone is an American writer and wanderer. She co-founded and publishes the group travel blog YourLifeIsATrip.com and is currently at work on her first book "I Could Live Here".