Suddenly Questions are all the rage and TravelPost launched Connections, a feature one offiicial dubs, “the most superior Questions and Answer offering in Travel.”
Those are the words of Simon Breakwell, the newly incarnated TravelPost’s co-founder and chief operating officer, who says Connections, by enabling users to log-in through Facebook Connect and follow threads, questions and answers from friends, affords people the ability to build their own social travel networks.
TravelPost opted to integrate Facebook in this manner, he adds, “rather than having Facebook hanging off the side.”
Connections appears to be a rebranding and evolution of TravelPost’s Travel Discussions, which only launched a few weeks ago in beta, but now apparently has been dropped as a brand.
When TravelPost debuted Travel Discussions, the company indicated that it would soon be introducing code that would enable users to follow their Facebook friends, and the rebranded and tweaked Connections appears to be the result.
The Travel Discussions tab is gone and replaced by a Connections tab.
Connections, which is in beta, follows by weeks the launch of Facebook Questions, which enables Facebook friends and friends of friends to ask questions and retrieve answers.
Breakwell notes that Google is rumored to be hatching a feature, Google Me, which would rival Facebook and presumably have a Questions component, as well.
In an email announcing the Connections beta, Breakwell says: “The timing for TravelPost Connections launch seems apposite, not just given how we can build something superior but also given the huge publicity around the whole Questions category.”
And, in an interview, he says: “We think people will crave expertise and people who know what they are talking about.”
With Connections, users can ask questions and look for answers from their Facebook friends.
For example, Sam S asks for a recommendation about a New York City hotel “with a fun vibe and bar scene and location.”
And, Sam S recieves an answer, the Room Mate Grace Hotel from Latika K.
The thread looks like this:
Breakwell says Connections offers tagging for optimal searching and, as its Travel Discussions predecessor did, “automatically generates discussions on geographies near to where your Discussion geography is.”
Breakwell also emphasizes Connections features an uncluttered user interface with “zero popups” and easy navigation.
Several former Expedia founders, then doing business as NewTravelCo, acquired TravelPost from Kayak in March, and have been working to relaunch the hotel review website in a much-anticipated new form.
In his email announcement, Breakwell says Connections “is not the ‘new’ TravelPost, but a new feature to the existing TravelPost biz that will take the standard travel forums to a whole new level.”
The new TravelPost is expected to make its debut by November.
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This is a nicely designed Q & A feature with all the trimmings. Well done TravelPost team.
I think the big question is whether it can build scale to fulfill the duel purpose of benefiting users and acquiring new customers via long tail SEO. Personally I see the latter as what’s at the heart of the Q & A boom, sort of in a UGC meets Associated Content mixup kind of way.
Q&A is great around any topic but the new goal should be to pair that up with Social Relevance. While I know and like Sam I have no idea who responded and how they fit in as one of my trust agents. Customer AQ will be the hard part.
I like this idea of conversations. Will definitely check it out regularly since I travel a fair amount.
–> a feature one offiicial dubs, “the most superior Questions and Answer offering in Travel.â€
Bring it on!!
Love Travellr.com
We have been working on a feature on our review site called Global Ask, the feature will be built around cities, meaning if you are reading hotel reviews about Paris, you can ask a question about Paris “for example what is a taxi fare from the airport to downtown?”; the goal is to make it very easy and accessible to ask and answer questions (no sign ups) thus increasing the likelihood of social interactions on the site.
Regards,
Nawar