For over a year, Yahoo’s Trip Planner has been available in the US; now this tool has finally found its way into Ireland and the UK. This didn’t exactly occur on schedule, but as a “Ghostbusters” character said when the Titanic pulled into dock, “better late than never.”
Indeed, Kevin May, the editor of Travolution, calls this development “a significant step for Yahoo! in Europe.” May goes on to write, “Although Trip Planner has been around since late-2005 (seven months in Beta) in the US, Facebook and WAYN penetration amongst travellers is far higher here in the UK.”
And so, “It will be a major coup for Yahoo! if it can persuade users of both the above to effectively abandon their travel networks in favour of something that is only now just getting off the ground.”
On to a description of the product in question, then. As you might suppose, Trip Planner allows users to plan their trips. The site has some social networking elements, however, through which users can also share plans with their family and friends.
“Just as other Yahoo! social search products like Flickr, Yahoo! Answers, del.icio.us, and MyWeb have created a platform for sharing information between users, Trip Planner is about offering a way for travellers to benefit from sharing their travel experiences,” explained Tim Frankcom, Yahoo Europe’s general manager of travel and shopping, in another Travolution article.
One last note: for those of you who are all about Yahoo and Europe, don’t forget that this is the last week of the Destination Handycam contest.
