GoAbroad is a traveler social network that launched at the end of 2007 and is very well crafted. As you can see from the list at the end of this column, we have covered many travel social networks. GoAbroad is up there with the best of them. GoAbroad helps you keep track of where in the world you have traveled to by allowing you to create a travel log (i.e. blog/journal) with your trip information. You can share your trips with others including photos and text. I assume GoAbroad will eventually offer the ability to import and/or link to video.

There’s a Google Maps mashup so you can find other GoAbroad members who have visited the locations you are interested in. There is also an option to create a group after you find other like-minded travelers. There are also resource pages for selected locations to help you before you arrive. A scrapbook (similar to bookmarks) allows you to mark pages that interest you for later viewing.

The social network seems to focus on students but anyone can join. In my testing, most of the profiles I looked at seemed like the people were not currently in school. One of the interesting parts of GoAbroad is that you can post a resume which will allow "advisors" to contact you about employment while in the countries you will travel to. When you open an account on GoAbroad, you can select whether you are a traveler or an advisor.

I’ve always wondered why Travelzoo and FlyerTalk haven’t created social networks like GoAbroad. They could have easily owned the space considering how popular both services are.

Check out our other travel social network reviews: TripSay, TravelMob, SoSauce, Driftr, TripAdvisor, TripIt and TripLife.

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TravelMob is a new startup doing for group travel what Evite does for group events. TravelMob CEO Adam Smith notes that the service includes customized trip homepage, the ability to invite people and manage RSVPs, upload important trip-related files, create a photo gallery, see top tours for your destination, and plan via message board. Going with the 2008 flow, TravelMob has a Facebook-style newsfeed so that trip attendees can be updated as others add information to the site.

I planned a trip using TravelMob to Las Vegas and found it the service easy-to-use. TravelMob is tied into the Sabre travel booking system so you can book air, hotel, car directly inside of TravelMob. If you book outside of TravelMob, there’s an option to add booking details. There’s an option to, "Jump on this Flight" so you can fly with other members of your travel group. I love Web apps that launch with a business plan. Selling bookings is just one way TravelMob can generate revenue.

TravelMob needs to go through the app and spell check and tidy up – no reason to lose points on the dismount when the execution was good. I would also vote for linking to other sites for information on the selected destination. This will help the entire group get familiar with the location before arriving plus it can help with marketing as well. I’d also recommend that TravelMob work with conferences - this would be a great tool for people to coordinate conference trips.

More CN Coverage:
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If you’re a blogger, you’re probably aware that FeedBurner recently began migrating customers to Google’s infrastructure, and in turn rolling out AdSense for RSS to certain publishers (Allen Stern had a good summary of the changes earlier this week). While initially I was optimistic when I heard Google’s plan back in May, calling it “huge news for content publishers,” today brings an alarming sign of the current state of the contextual advertising product.

In the post we published earlier today, “18 Smaller Olympic Countries to Root For,” the ad accompanying the story in Google Reader was the following:

What we have here is another example of a contextual advertising misfire – Google sees a lot of words about sports and automatically determines that an ad about fitness might be a good fit. But rather than fire up a PG ad for GNC or Gold’s Gym, we get the very PG-13 ad for a gay fitness site that has absolutely no place in the feed of any professional news organization.

Now don’t get me wrong – I’d have the same reaction if the ad was of a scantly clad female as well. It’s simply inappropriate given the nature of our business, and while I realize we can have this ad removed from our rotation (we can use AdSense’s site filtering features), the policy of shoot first and fix later doesn’t do much for readers that have already formed a negative brand perception based on this type of advertising showing up with our feed.

To its credit, AdSense does offer a new “Ad Review Center” that can give the publisher full control over reviewing all ads before they show up – but again, the default is “Run ads immediately,” meaning unless you disable the setting right away, you’re leaving yourself open to inappropriate ads. There has to be a better in between – manual review by us of every ad is infeasible and will hurt our earnings, but at the same time, “run ads immediately” creates situations like the one above when there is no flag for this type of content.

Meanwhile, Yahoo and Google are taking a similar approach directly with consumers in separate announcements issued this week concerning targeted advertising - you can now opt-out of it on both company’s websites, but you’re opted-in by default. This is more understandable – asking each Internet user to opt-in to advertising before showing ads is unrealistic. Similarly, when Facebook serves those obnoxious “26 and Still Single?” ads, they have every right to do so, because if I hate them that much, I can just stop using the service.

While in those cases, it might be infeasible to have Yahoo, Google, Facebook ask permission before serving targeted ads on their own respective websites and third-party ad networks, when you are dealing with publishers, their brand, and ultimately their business, a bit more discretion should be shown in determining what type of ads are displayed. Believe it or not, we actually care.

—Related Articles at Mashable! - The Social Networking Blog:Ask.com Launches AdSense CompetitorProximic Puts a Twist on Contextual AdvertisingBlinkx Launching Video AdSenseContextual Advertising Misfires Hit Presidential CampaignsThe Daily Poll: Which Online Video Ad Format Will Win?When Contextual Advertising Goes Horribly WrongAdSense Becomes a Video Distribution Network with Help from Family Guy

Source:Mashable!

Editor’s Note: This post is part of an ongoing series at Mashable - The Startup Review, Sponsored by Sun Microsystems Startup Essentials. If you would like to have your startup considered for inclusion, please see the details here.

STARTUP DETAILS:

Company Name: About Airport Parking

20 word description: AboutAirportParking.com helps you find the best place to park at the airport with prices, maps, user reviews and more.

CEO’s Pitch: With air travel an expensive hassle these days, AboutAirportParking.com simplifies the question of where to park your car. AboutAirportParking.com lists over 400 parking lots, covering every major airport in the United States. We provide detailed information on each lot, including prices, available services and user reviews all neatly organized with maps and tips to help you find the best lot for you. In select markets you can also make a reservation to guarantee a spot and lock in online discounts.

Mashable’s Take: There are a lot of Web-based services out there that are taking on the offline parking industry in an effort to make it easier to find parking spots, especially for travelers. The fact remains that it’s a difficult industry to fully break into, given its offline presence and technological obstacles for making it a viable Web-based tool. But today we have another team that’s dedicated itself to bringing the parking industry into a useful online search tool.

About Airport Parking is a site that was borne of an idea some time ago, and is finally manifesting itself fully online. With search capabilities for parking around the world, About Airport Parking has a global reach on a very niche market. But in concentrating on the airport parking market, About Airport Parking has been able to do a few things that move it further ahead than some of the other parking search sites we’ve seen, like online reservations for parking handled directly on About Airport Parking’s site.

This particular niche in the parking industry is more likely than an independent parking lot owner in a downtown area to support things like online reservations, and as airport parking is something that can easily be planned for ahead of time, About Airport Parking doesn’t have to be as reliant on mobile or in-car navigation integration. This also means that the self-service market isn’t a likely consideration for About Airport Parking.

As this site continues to develop its feature set and automated features, I’d be interested in seeing how it could fit in with other travel services. Sites like SideStep have already integrated parking information, or personal assistant and recommendation services, as these too are beginning to move into the airport-specific travel industry.

Sponsored by Sun Startup Essentials

—Related Articles at Mashable! - The Social Networking Blog:SideStep Launches Useful Airport VerticalParkingHunter is Just a Google/Craigslist Map Mashup. Yawn.FlashMashMeet @ Austin Airport Concludes SXSWiCNET Launches AtLarge - Social Site for Airport Wi-FiFlagXO Launches Airport Review SiteOrbitz Launches Incentives for Traveler Update ServiceAt Least ParkingSpots.com Has a Good Domain Name

You know an online video has gone viral when your mom is asking if you’ve seen it. And that’s exactly what happened to me this morning as the first thing my mom says to me is “Have you seen the Paris Hilton campaign video responding John McCain?”

Remarkably though, my answer was “no.” The video went live on Funny or Die just last night, but has already been viewed more than 3 million times, making it the 6th most popular video of all-time on Will Ferrell’s much-hyped (and heavily funded) video startup.

At this rate, Paris could challenge the video that first put the site on the map – The Landlord, which has been viewed more than 58 million times since being uploaded more than a year ago.

That’s good news for Funny or Die, which has failed to gain serious traction since its initial spike from The Landlord. Compete shows the site attracting 550,000 viewers in the US last month – down 34% from last year. Of course, many of the millions of views the Paris video is receiving won’t help the traffic numbers since they’ll be from embeds elsewhere, but it’s a huge opportunity for the site to regain some momentum, and that would be hot (I couldn’t resist).

Oh, and if you’re not quite sure what exactly Paris is responding to, the video actually is a parody of a commercial released by the McCain campaign that has been causing quite a stir on the cable news networks and talk radio over the past week. The video has since been pulled from YouTube (and a few other video sharing sites I tried), but if you have a working link to it add it in the comments so we can embed.

—Related Articles at Mashable! - The Social Networking Blog:Paris Hilton: Independent Video Content ProducerParis Hilton Videos Now on YouTubeDiddy Launches DiddyTV on YouTubePerez Hilton: The Mouse That RoaredYouTube Launches Comedian AccountsPrivate Zuckerberg and Paris Hilton Photos, Accessed on FacebookViacom Abandons “YouTube Killer”?

Source:Mashable!

Travel search site TripSay officially launches its public beta today, allowing anybody to register for an account and try out its service. As I mentioned in our previous coverage of TripSay’s private beta, the site’s distinction as a search and recommendation engine is important. While the previous private beta release included a handful of new social features, today’s public beta launch highlights a number of upgrades as well.

Most of the upgrades revolve around search filters and easy interactivity with TripSay’s service, including a World Builder that makes it easier for users to add places, rate locations and add their own tips. The new group filter allows you to sift through search results based on the number of people you’ll be traveling with, and a group message board makes for easier communication amongst users that will be traveling together.

Other features are more focused on the user experience and the creation of a customizable recommendation tool, with a new option for collecting your favorite tips in a private group, and the ability to edit existing tips and places you’ve already created on the site. If you had the opportunity to check out TripSay’s private beta, you’ll recognize the importance of many of these features in terms of its group capabilities, as group functionality within TripSay is central to the activity and recommendation options on the site.

As TripSay is one travel search and recommendation that is beginning to straddle the fence in terms of other sites that are distinctly created for professional or user-generated recommendations, I’ll be interested in seeing whatever developments come about as a result of the public beta launch and its included new features. TripSay could become one of the services that approaches a unique middle ground within the online travel search and recommendation industry.

TripSay company profile provided by TradeVibes

—Related Articles at Mashable! - The Social Networking Blog:TripSay Launches New Social Features for Private Beta [Invites]Google Social Graph API Spotted in the Wild: Plaxo Public ProfilesPownce Launch Party Tonight - Pownce to Exit Private BetaPownce To Launch Public APIMobile, Public Art Blogging, Wrapped Up in BigArtMobSocially Enabled Legal Documents?YouTube Germany Launches

Expedia is announcing this morning that they have partnered with Baynote to include Baynote’ social search in the Expedia booking engine. Baynote’s social search takes search queries and then can present options to future searchers for refining their query to help find exactly what they are seeking. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

While the information provided talks about increasing the customer experience on Expedia, this type of search might lead to increased transaction rates. Rather than a customer potentially leaving Expedia when he or she doesn’t find what they are seeking, now Baynote can help get the customer to what they are seeking and then book the travel item.

Baynote also powers other corporate customer’s social search including NASA and Motorola.

Earlier this month Expedia lost their deal with MSN. Also check out our Google Trends showdown between Expedia and TripAdvisor.

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Dan Frommer from SAI sat down with NY Times chief technology officer Marc Frons to find out what’s going on at the newspaper’s digital division. Last week we interviewed NY Times Blogrunner Product Manager Philippe Lourier about where their blog aggregation tool is headed. Frommer gets a good look and more information on the NY Times overall digital strategy.

The interview focuses on content syndication, widgets, aggregation (w/Blogrunner), social overlay (w/TimesPeople) and Personalization. They are also planning iPhone apps and APIs so that developers can pull data out of their content repository. I am very excited to see that they are thinking about widgets. Why not get the NY Times content out all over the Web and potentially monetize the widgets or do a revshare with the partner sites. Frommer grabbed a screenshot of what the most popular widget might look like when it launches this summer.

I’d like to see more content discovery — the site is certainly overwhelming in content. What works in print doesn’t always translate to the Web. Perhaps they can learn from the Web 2.0 services that are creating strong discovery engines based on your profile and preferences.

As I pointed out to Philippe, the NY Times is sitting on a gold mine and they haven’t opened the doors yet to share and sell the gold. The online news landscape could change once those doors open up.

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Source:CenterNetworks

You know Expedia, right? They began life as a Microsoft company. Yesterday they were fired from MSN. Get out, pack your bags and get out! Beginning yesterday, MSN Travel is now hitched with Orbitz. This change affects customers in the U.S. and in the U.K.

Kyle Peterson from Forbes notes that a Microsoft spokesman said the company decided to switch to Orbitz because it preferred the travel site’s features and customer service.

The monthly traffic that will now be diverted in the air to Orbitz is in the range of 3.5 million unique visitors per month. When I check Expedia’s status board, all lines say "Delayed". This is a big hit for Expedia.

In my opinion Expedia’s usability is much better than Orbitz. Was this deal completed for the reasons listed above or really for financial reasons?

Last month we took a look at Expedia’s traffic using Google Trends. Here’s a chart of Expedia vs. Orbitz. Currently Expedia shows 2x more traffic than Orbitz. This MSN Travel deal could easily bring both companies together in terms of site traffic.

TripSay is a new travel social network launching in private beta today that claims to "offer you less but more". The idea is to provide you with specific recommendations that are targeted to you and your needs. The company notes that they use a unique recommendation engine to proactively match destinations, places, sights, content, and activities for people across their network of friends as well as with those with similar tastes.

The signup process actually takes you through a variety of questions to help the system target what you might like. This is the first time I’ve seen a travel social network ask me background questions before entering the system. You can contribute content and earn points — I never really care for point collection, it’s lame.

There’s location information from WikiTravel and images from Flickr. Their Google Maps mashup is pretty interesting. The overall design is very slick and Ajaxy.

The main content seems to come from "tips" you can leave on the map about certain locations. This should tie into the mobile so tips popup as you get close to locations they have tips for. I don’t see a way to leave travel reports like Sosauce does.

The key of course with this and all other social networks is their ability to get users to signup and also remain as a user. Why should I stop using TripAdvisor’s community and move over to TripSay? The key is making sure my friends are here. TripSay looks like it could use a boost from Dopplr or Plazes so that we know where are friends are currently.

If you’d like a TripSay invite, send an email to: info@tripsay.com with the subject line, CenterNetworks.

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