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Travel Beyond Words

Archive for January, 2008

Thursday, January 31st, 2008

Geography 101, Please!

Mark Evans
Director, Community

By Mark Evans

Judging from my, at best, mediocre scores playing the ultra-addictive Travel IQ (Come on, I wasn’t killing time; I was doing research!), it’s clear that I’m no geography whiz.

But even I know there’s something not quite right about this map of North America that appears on HolidayCheck’s Web site. I mean, when did the Great Lakes get shifted so far south?

As well, the U.S.-Canada border seems somewhat askew, right? And what happened to Mexico? Has it been annexed by South America or the Caribbean?

Picture 1-39

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Wednesday, January 30th, 2008

The Future of Google Maps?

Mark Evans
Director, Community

Google Maps’ street view service has been controversial since its launch, raising a myriad of issues such as privacy and to what extent Google can give people a snapshot of the entire world.

This spoof video is funny until you start to think about easy it would be for it to become reality…if it already isn’t a reality but we don’t know it yet.

Hat tip to ValleyVag.

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Monday, January 28th, 2008

Take Control of Your Digital Photos

Mark Evans
Director, Community

Picture 1-37

By Mark Evans
Hands up, who’s got a Flickr account? What about photos on Facebook? Or SmugMug? Or Picasa?

If that’s you, then managing your digital photos can be a huge hassle that’s often not worth the time or effort. What if there was a tool that could help you moves photos from one service to another, or from your computer to an online service.

Goutham Sukumar, a former Microsoft developer, is shooting to come up with the solution with a product called NitroDesk, which was just released into beta. With NitroDesk, you can transfer photos by simply dragging and dropping them, browse through multiple sites, create slide shows, and search for photos and bookmark your favorites.

NitroDesk currently works with Picasa, Facebook, Flickr, ShutterPoint, SmugMug and Windows Live Spaces.

For more, check out Rick Segal’s post.

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Monday, January 28th, 2008

How to Eat Like a Local

Mark Evans
Director, Community

By Mark Evans

Brave New Traveler, which is quickly becoming one of my favorite travel blogs, has a great post on how to eat like a local.

As much as seeing the major attractions is a key part of any travel adventure, food captures the essence of a destination because it intimately involves the senses - sight, smell, taste - while providing a special connection to the people preparing it for you.

Some of the most spectacular meals I’ve had while travelling have been served at open-air street “restaurants” where you can see the food being prepared. In particular, I can remember eating an amazing curry in Kuala Lumpur alongside all the locals catching a quick lunch. It wasn’t a spot I found in a guide but something I stumbled upon.

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Friday, January 25th, 2008

Searls’ Advice to Live.com

Mark Evans
Director, Community

Doc Searls, who sits on PlanetEye’s board, has some advice for the folks at Microsoft about how they could enhance Live.com so it can compete more effectively against Google Maps.

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Thursday, January 24th, 2008

Everyblock Goes Hyperlocal

Mark Evans
Director, Community

Picture 16
By Mark Evans

It’s big world out there with an endless number of places to explore.

While adventures to far flung and exotic places are exciting, there’s plenty to explore just around the corner. At PlanetEye, we’re hoping to meet the needs of people traveling 1,500 miles or 1.5 miles by offering insight from travelers and locals for destinations around the world.

There are a growing number of companies solely focused on the local scene - a trend often described as hyperlocal. A new hyperlocal player is Everyblock, which searches the Web for information from other sites such as Yelp, Flickr, blog posts, Craigslist listings and government databases. It then packages and presents this information so people can get a current, in-depth view of their local scenes.

Everyblock was started by the same entrepreneurs behind chicagocrime.org (a Google Maps mash-up). The service has been launched in three cities - San Francisco, New York City and Chicago.

For more thoughts on Everyblock, check out A VC, who believes hyperlocal sites will be another blow to local newspapers, TechCrunch and the Everyblock blog.

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Wednesday, January 23rd, 2008

Photo of the Week

Mark Evans
Director, Community

By Mark Evans

If you’ve checked out our Flickr group recently, you may have noticed there’s a lot more activity. Kate Struthers has become the group’s chief moderator (consider it a promotion, Kate!), and been busy inviting people who have taken beautiful travel photographs. Here’s a stunning photograph of the Libyan Sahara.

Picture 10

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Wednesday, January 23rd, 2008

Wi-Fi in the Sky?

Mark Evans
Director, Community

Southwest

Within the airline industry, the ability to offer high-speed Internet access to customers has been one of those things that, in theory, sounds like a good idea.

The reality, however, has been another story. Boeing, for example, axed its Connexion service in 2006 due to a lack of interest from airlines amid low demand from passengers who were reluctant to pay for it - a decision that cost the aircraft maker $320-million in one-time charges.

Despite how difficulty in building demand for in-flight Internet access, there are still airlines more than happy to see if another solution will work.

According to Engadget, Southwest Airlines is thinking about offering WiFi service. The discount airline will outfit four of its airplanes with the service this summer through an arrangement with a satellite service provider called Row 44. No word on whether Southwest plans to charge for the service.

Update: Mashable has some thoughts on Southwest’s plans, while BuzzTracker has a post that American Airlines will be offering in-flight WiFi service, costing $10 to $13 based on the length of the flight.

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Tuesday, January 22nd, 2008

Geotagging 101

Mark Evans
Director, Community

By Mark Evans

At PlanetEye, we talk about geotagging on a regular basis. After all, beautiful geotagged photographs are a core part of what we’re doing to create a new kind of online travel guide.

But for many people, geotagging - the ability to locate photographs where they were taken - is something they are just beginning to learn more about. It won’t be long, however, before geotagging and, for that matter GPS, are mainstream tools. A sign of this trend is this video, which explains geotagging in pretty simple terms.

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Monday, January 21st, 2008

Getty Images on the Block

Mark Evans
Director, Community

Picture 7-2
By Mark Evans

Given the stock market’s volatility these days, it may not be the best time for a publicly-traded company to be trying to sell itself but Getty Images has put itself in play.

According to the New York Times, the world’s biggest supplier of stock photographs and video is looking for a buyer in a deal that could be worth more than $1.5-billion.

The Seattle-based company company attracts more than four million unique visitors a month to its Web site but it is seeing increased competition from low-cost rivals .

For more, check out WebProNews and Silicon Valley Insider, which suggests while the Internet has been it easier to distribute photographs, the value of an individual photograph has declined - a matter of supply and demand.

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