How would you deliver great travel guides online?
April 30, 2007
The Telegraph travel site had a refit last week, gaining a snazzy map interface that lets you drill down to country-specific content. Also new is a series of downloadable destination guides.
While the map is a great feature, for me the guides are doomed to be neither fish nor fowl.
If they flag up the newest and trendiest attractions they have a short lifespan; if they do the opposite and highlight established hotspots then they have no real point of differentiation.
The problem, basically - and it is by no means unique to the Telegraph - is that they are generic and static, and web users can easily access something that is more niche and current.
So, money where mouth is: if I had unlimited resources, how would I use the web to deliver consumer destination guides?
It would be somewhere between content aggregator and desktop publishing software. Users would create their own guides by placing elements on a page using a simple interface - as per services such as MySpace, Ning or Netvibes.
They'd fill those elements with text, images, videos or feeds of their choice; alongside a New York feature from a newspaper might be a New York feed from Gridskipper, or a local weather feed from the BBC. Ideally much of this would come from an integrated content directory.
Finally they'd save the guide to a mobile device, or print a hard copy. Admittedly the latter renders the guide static, but if you're creating or updating it the day before you leave then that isn't a problem.
How does that sound? Or, if you're a Travolution reader, does it already exist?
Nathan Midgley




Comments (3)
It does, kind of. Its called Wikitravel. Doesn't quite do all the things you talk about but its in the same ballpark.
Posted by Paul Goodison | May 1, 2007 9:22 AM
Posted on May 1, 2007 09:22
Hi Paul-
Not convinced I'm afraid! Wikis can be edited but not truly personalised - the editing process is geared towards producing something for a general readership, not for the individual.
Posted by Nathan | May 1, 2007 5:36 PM
Posted on May 1, 2007 17:36
Sorry Nathan - you're right - I misread what you said - I thought you were asking for user generated content as a guide and then the ability to aggregate it.
I don't think it would be hard to build, mind you - just need someone with the skills to get cracking on it.
Posted by Paul Goodison | May 2, 2007 4:23 PM
Posted on May 2, 2007 16:23