Soon you can brag about your travels to your fellow MySpace friends as well as your height, weight and looks.
Where I've Been aka WIB, an application for sharing a map on places you've visited, lived in or want to visit, will now be available for MySpace users, the company plans to announce Friday.
The mapping application allows users to color-code the world by where they have visited or lived and where they would like to go. The U.S. is broken out by states while the rest of the world is broken out by country.
The Chicago-based company originally designed the application for use with Facebook.
As of September 5, Where I've Been ranked as the second most popular travel application on Facebook with 130,858 daily active users. That's about 5 percent of the total Facebook users. Cities I've Visited, which is also part of TripAdvisor's new travel-oriented social-network, was ranked No. 1 with about 7 percent of Facebook's daily active users.
In early August there were rumors that TripAdvisor planned to buy the rival Facebook application for $3 million. Where I've Been creator Craig Ulliott has denied there is any truth to a TripAdvisor acquistion.
MySpace users can get the widget to add to their MySpace page from WhereIveBeen.com.
Where I've Been application as it appears on Facebook.
(Credit: Where I've Been)This post has been updated to include the Facebook app creator's statement on the issue.
Ouch, here's a zinger: contrary to reports, travel site TripAdvisor apparently did not purchase the Facebook Platform application Where I've Been for $3 million. The news was originally reported on Inside Facebook on Thursday night.
A statement from a TripAdvisor representative read, "This is untrue. Beyond that, we do not have any comment."
The company isn't saying any more, obviously. You could really dig into the nuances of the statement, implying it to mean that either the entire rumor of the purchase is untrue, or just the price, or even just some of the details. However, we're going to assume that we should take this at face value and consider the entire acquisition to be an incorrect rumor.
UPDATE (1:53 p.m. PDT): Craig Ulliott, creator of the Where I've Been app, has confirmed that TripAdvisor has not acquired his creation. In a statement, he explained the situation: "There have been some rumors in the market that we have sold our business. These rumors are not true. Our future development plans, combined with our robust community of users, current growth rates, and the attractiveness of the travel vertical, have led to a number of strategic discussions with potential partners/acquirers, but we have not agreed to any deals and we are committed to building Where I've Been into a sustainable and profitable standalone business."
But, Ulliott added, we shouldn't wholly discount the possibility of an acquisition: "We are, however, exploring all avenues to maximize the value and usefulness of our product for our user base and we expect to announce new product features/enhancements," he explained, "from both internal development and through strategic business partnerships, in the weeks and months ahead."
TripAdvisor, that sea of au courant and sometimes complaint-driven posts about hotels, is making it easier to find like-minded travelers. The subsidiary of Expedia plans to roll out a social-networking component Friday that should help you avoid those less-than-helpful "no ice in the water" comments about foreign hotels.
While you may roll your eyes at the idea of yet another social-networking site, keep in mind that TripAdvisor, which claims 10 million unique users, has cultural custom on its side.
(Credit:
TripAdvisor)
For example, calling a person four degrees removed for advice on where to stay in Uppsala or asking for a dinner invitation when visiting someone's home city of Novosibirsk, is already socially accepted behavior for travelers.
TripAdvisor has made it painless to register your network of travelers, the point at which many sites often lose people. It imports contacts from Gmail, AOL, Hotmail, MSN, Outlook and Outlook Express. Check off who you want to invite, and who you don't want to bother asking, but who you will preaccept if they invite you. Click Submit and you're done.
You can view your friends' networks and invite their friends to join. And here's where TripAdvisor can't lose when it comes to building community. Why wouldn't you just invite everyone on everyone's list? You're only sharing travel advice and chances are you'll have more in common with someone you tangentially know than a random poster.
Reviews from travelers within your network float above the general population whenever you do a site search. You can also view their reviews, photos and lists of favorites and exchange messages from one central location. You can also view their maps.
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