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I feel like the site isn't really selling its benefits to me. I do organize some trips, but I wouldn't use this now because I don't want to bother everyone by t

by bemmu 18y ago

I feel like the site isn't really selling its benefits to me. I do organize some trips, but I wouldn't use this now because I don't want to bother everyone by telling them to sign up to this service, when I don't really know what the benefit would be. Travel is such an interesting area, mostly because it is seeing so little new innovation that I feel there must be something big lurking just around the corner. There are few well known types of sites, such as review / listing aggregator sites, flight price comparison engines, these organize-your-own-trip sites (that seem to be quite niche) but it is so rare to see any new ideas. The only really new thing I've found is SeatGuru, which lets you find the best seats, which really provides useful information for the travel planning process. Those Facebook applications where you can show your travels on a map in your profile were a nice idea too. Anything I'm missing?

dimi 18y ago
Thanks, we're trying to improve the selling pitch :) What makes us different from other travel sites is that we try to take a semantically meaningful view of a trip so that you can organize anything and everything about your trips in one place. And we hope to do it so that you can come back in 10,20,30 years and retrace your steps and have fun with your past trips.
- gills 18y ago
  First, great work! You have a nice site, at least that is my impression from the tour. The sales pitch of keeping everything in one place and sharing it with friends who may be meeting us along the way is great. My wife and I are planning a trip around the world. It's been pretty complicated so far. Just getting that amount of air travel figured out has been difficult (mainly because the Star Alliance RTW tool appears to have a recursion depth of 1...). We're just now working on booking places to stay, tours to take, shoehorning various experiences and adventures into the spaces between flights. Convince me to use your site. What significant advantage will it have over a spreadsheet full of travel plans? Over a blog with pictures and a google maps widget? What does "semantically meaningful" mean to me as a traveler? Do you mix in current data (travel warnings, visa requirements, etc.) with my plans so they are relevant at later dates?
  - dimi 18y ago
    Thank you! We have done a lot of traveling ourselves, and the original inspiration for the site was to package all the various spreadsheets, notes, and disjoint sites that we've used during the planning. Are we at the point where we can replace all of that? Not yet. But we are getting there, and using the site gives you automatic access to all the tools that are coming online the next little while. You have a _nice_ place (no nasty ads) to store all the information related to your trip, in a way that you'll enjoy in the future (in fact, you will have access to some really cool stuff that we have planned almost for free as you'll have all the relevant information in one place). So the more we develop the site, the more you'll get out of your data without you having to do anything additionally. Now, you seem like a sophisticated user, and probably you'll still need your spreadsheets. But we can certainly use feedback from users like you in terms of features that would help you ditch those spreadsheets. So indeed, short term plans are to mix in the current data with your plans. Give you customized documentation based on your itinerary. Make it easier for you to search the best travel rates (or even doing it automagically for you). We'll get there shortly.
    - gills 18y ago
      I'll give you a hint, I am not the sophisticated one ;) I'm looking forward to giving your site a whirl!

by bemmu 18y ago

dimi 18y ago

Thanks, we're trying to improve the selling pitch :) What makes us different from other travel sites is that we try to take a semantically meaningful view of a trip so that you can organize anything and everything about your trips in one place. And we hope to do it so that you can come back in 10,20,30 years and retrace your steps and have fun with your past trips.

gills 18y ago
First, great work! You have a nice site, at least that is my impression from the tour. The sales pitch of keeping everything in one place and sharing it with friends who may be meeting us along the way is great. My wife and I are planning a trip around the world. It's been pretty complicated so far. Just getting that amount of air travel figured out has been difficult (mainly because the Star Alliance RTW tool appears to have a recursion depth of 1...). We're just now working on booking places to stay, tours to take, shoehorning various experiences and adventures into the spaces between flights. Convince me to use your site. What significant advantage will it have over a spreadsheet full of travel plans? Over a blog with pictures and a google maps widget? What does "semantically meaningful" mean to me as a traveler? Do you mix in current data (travel warnings, visa requirements, etc.) with my plans so they are relevant at later dates?
- dimi 18y ago
  Thank you! We have done a lot of traveling ourselves, and the original inspiration for the site was to package all the various spreadsheets, notes, and disjoint sites that we've used during the planning. Are we at the point where we can replace all of that? Not yet. But we are getting there, and using the site gives you automatic access to all the tools that are coming online the next little while. You have a _nice_ place (no nasty ads) to store all the information related to your trip, in a way that you'll enjoy in the future (in fact, you will have access to some really cool stuff that we have planned almost for free as you'll have all the relevant information in one place). So the more we develop the site, the more you'll get out of your data without you having to do anything additionally. Now, you seem like a sophisticated user, and probably you'll still need your spreadsheets. But we can certainly use feedback from users like you in terms of features that would help you ditch those spreadsheets. So indeed, short term plans are to mix in the current data with your plans. Give you customized documentation based on your itinerary. Make it easier for you to search the best travel rates (or even doing it automagically for you). We'll get there shortly.
  - gills 18y ago
    I'll give you a hint, I am not the sophisticated one ;) I'm looking forward to giving your site a whirl!