Travelers arrive at Facebook
Hatched in a Harvard University dorm room three years ago as a way to keep tabs on fellow students, the social networking site Facebook is becoming a go-to destination for travelers Д and not just the type who frequent youth hostels or friends’ couches.
Since opening its virtual doors last fall to anyone with an e-mail address, Facebook has graduated to more than 37 million users.
The 25-and-over crowd is its fastest-growing demographic; more than half its users do not go to college.
A key factor in the site’s rapid ascent: development of more than 3,000 free, third-party software applications that let Facebook “friends” trade everything from travel tips, Scrabble scores and books they’re reading to hedge fund advice via a fantasy stock exchange.
The most popular of Facebook’s 100-odd travel applications, downloaded by more than 2.6 million members since its launch by a freelance Web developer in June, is Where I’ve Been Д a color-coded global map that highlights places users have traveled to, lived in and want to visit.
The interactive map includes a smattering of facts for each destination, including flag, population, and number of airports and Internet users.
This month, rumors swirled Д and were swatted down Д that Expedia-owned TripAdvisor had paid $3 million for Where I’ve Been. The buzz surrounding the phantom sale to TripAdvisor, which offers a similar Cities I’ve Visited map on Facebook, shows the site “is certainly making on impact on travel,” says Lorraine Sileo of PhoCusWright, a travel research firm.
Another online travel company staking a Facebook claim is the search site SideStep.
Among its offerings are Trips, a group travel planning service, and CouchSwap, a feature that lets members find and rate free in-home alternatives to hotel rooms.
Both travel applications are aimed largely at Facebook’s original member base: “We’re not a brand that many college kids are aware of, and there’s no better way to introduce ourselves to that demographic,” says SideStep CEO Rob Solomon.
Not all Facebook fans are convinced of its potential future as a one-stop shop for travel.
“The implications are rather exciting. You could search for and book flights on one application, peruse hotel listings on another, plan a trip with your buddies on another and so on Ц all without leaving the warm and cuddly pages of Facebook,” writes Benji Lanyado of London’s Guardian Unlimited.
Still, he says, “there’s just not much you can really do yet Д like book flights, find couches, find worthy tips Д that you can’t do much better somewhere else.”
But others are impressed with the fun factor Д and potential bragging rights Д of Facebook applications such as TravelPod’s Traveler IQ Challenge.
Traveler IQ participants (nearly 430,000 to date) download a map to their Facebook page, and in quick succession are shown a list of cities, historical sites and other destinations around the globe.
Players click their cursors on their best guess for the location of each on the map; the 12-round game gets progressively more difficult “with islands in unmarked areas of the oceans challenging the most ardent geogrophiles,” a Travelpod press release notes.
Users can check to see how they compare with Facebook members at various schools, institutions and businesses, or in other countries. As of this week, Paris’ Йcole Normale Supйrieure had posted the highest average travel IQ of any group with a score of 117.23.
“It’s totally addictive, and you’re learning at the same time,” says avid traveler John DiScala, owner of JohnnyJet.com.
DiScala’s score for the World Challenge: an above-average 120 Д which, his Facebook profile notes, ranks him No. 1 among his “friends.”
Have you used Facebook for travel? Share your experiences below.
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