Monday, November 24, 2008
How to work the Trazzler system...
We've received a lot of feedback over the past month about the recommendations that Trazzler makes. First off, thank you for all of the suggestions, bug reports, complaints... We're working on improving the IQ of the Travel Personality aspect of Trazzler--and it's taking some time, because we really want to weigh many different variables. When we launch the new version, we'll let you know here.
As it is now, the trip recommendations are very heavily weighted toward weekend trips in your region--but this will change. Version 2.0 will look at the trips in your Wishlist and trips that you "Send to a Friend" and will use the locations and tags to determine where you want to go and what kinds of trips most interest you.
In the meantime, there are thousands and thousands of trips on Trazzler and several different ways to trazzle through a fascinating stream of them.
You can always click on a region or country in the right column ("browsing mode") to jump to another part of the world and start skipping through trips (what we call trazzling) and adding them to you wishlist. Just pick a trip in a given place and you'll start fanning out from that point. You can control the types of places you'll see by choosing a strategic location. For example, somewhere like the island of Cyprus...
http://www.trazzler.com/trips/countries/cyprus
will give you a pretty quirky mix of trips from every side of the Mediterranean... Or for an eclectic mix in the Indian Ocean, Australia, SE Asia, start here...
http://www.trazzler.com/trips/countries/christmas-island
You can do the same by using the tags (romantic, outdoors, beach, culinary, etc.):
http://www.trazzler.com/trips/tags/beach
http://www.trazzler.com/trips/tags/culinary
We also use the tags to mark trips written by our new freelancers and for our monthly contest:
Freelancers:
http://www.trazzler.com/trips/tags/freelancer
November Urban Enigma Contest:
http://www.trazzler.com/trips/tags/urban-enigma
If you are really brave, you can dive straight into the tag cloud.. the bigger the font, the more trips for that tag:
http://www.trazzler.com/tags/cloud
I always try to go crazy with the tags on the trips I publish, so you're sure to find some attention grabbers in there.
You can also see a list of recently published Trazzler trips here:
http://www.trazzler.com/trips/new-to-trazzler
Whatever you add to your Wishlist or send to a friend now is being registered as a preference and will help the site to start making smarter suggestions once we launch the new "algorithm" (this is the incredibly geeky term they use for the math behind choosing trips for a given user).
You can also try changing your location under your account settings if you want to "go" somewhere different for a while.
I hope this will give you plenty of places to explore while we get the bigger, better, faster, stronger (bionic?) algorithm ready.
--Megan
Saturday, November 22, 2008
November Newsletter
Hello Trazzlers--
Today was one of those perfect (though far too fleeting) fall days in Madrid with a deep blue sky, shafts of yellow light, falling leaves, and long afternoon shadows. Where have you been lately? Have you been traveling to any places on your Trazzler Wishlist? Have you added any new weekend trips for this winter?
This week we started sending out our weekly Trip recommendations. How did we do? We're still working on the logic behind how we choose these trips for each user, so we'd love to get some feedback on how we can make it better.
Hiring News
More of our initial funding came through this month so we were finally able to get started hiring another batch of freelancers (writers: we apologize for the delay). Every one of these writers submitted trips that expanded our idea of what Trazzler can be. Over the next month, you'll be able to check out their new trips at: http://www.trazzler.com/trips/tags/freelancer.
Christine Cantera: Offbeat Expat (missexpatria.wordpress.com/)
http://www.trazzler.com/trips/users/missexpatria
Tim Chester: London Insider
http://www.trazzler.com/trips/users/timchester
Katie Hammel: Luxury on the Cheap
http://www.trazzler.com/trips/users/katiehammel
Cheri Lucas: Driven by Obsessions (cherilucas.com)
http://www.trazzler.com/trips/users/clucas
Phillip Orchard: Poignant Places (philliporchard.com)
http://www.trazzler.com/trips/users/phildavid
Barbara Weibel: Seasoned Globetrotter (holeinthedonut.com)
http://www.trazzler.com/trips/users/barbaraw
Kara Williams: Mountain Mama (karaswilliams.com/)
http://www.trazzler.com/trips/users/karasw
We remain committed to dedicating 10%-15% of our budget (significantly more than major market newspapers) to freelance and part-time writers and editors. We still have a long list of other writers whose Trazzler trips caught our eye--this is only the beginning. So, please, keep submitting those trips so we can see what you can do. We read them all.
October's Theme: Mom and Pops
http://www.trazzler.com/trips/tags/mom-and-pop
We loved the response that we got to last month's plea to spread the word about our favorite mom-and-pops... So much so that we decided that we want to reward the very best "theme" trips that we receive each month.
October's Winner: Tina Jett (tinajett.com)
http://www.trazzler.com/trips/users/jett
Tina was already on our radar with her extremely well-loved and popular Carolina RollerGirls trip. But we thought she really embraced the local mom-and-pop genre:
- Going Loco for Locopops in Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina
- Getting Your Chocolate Fix at Escazu in Raleigh, North Carolina
- Becoming a Beadfreak at Ornamentea in Raleigh, North Carolina
So we awarded her a contract to write 10 more trips this month.
November's Theme: Urban Enigmas
http://www.trazzler.com/trips/tags/urban-enigma
Award: A $250 Contract to Write 10 Trips
This month, we want to dig into those enigmatic, secret corners of our cities and towns. Those hidden (sometimes in plain sight) places or phenomena that are mysterious, weird, unnerving, thought-provoking, inscrutable, evocative of a past long forgotten... Add the tag "urban enigma" to your trips and check out the link above to see the weird and wonderful places that others have submitted.
Happy Trazzling,
Megan Cytron and the Trazzler Team
Today was one of those perfect (though far too fleeting) fall days in Madrid with a deep blue sky, shafts of yellow light, falling leaves, and long afternoon shadows. Where have you been lately? Have you been traveling to any places on your Trazzler Wishlist? Have you added any new weekend trips for this winter?
This week we started sending out our weekly Trip recommendations. How did we do? We're still working on the logic behind how we choose these trips for each user, so we'd love to get some feedback on how we can make it better.
Hiring News
More of our initial funding came through this month so we were finally able to get started hiring another batch of freelancers (writers: we apologize for the delay). Every one of these writers submitted trips that expanded our idea of what Trazzler can be. Over the next month, you'll be able to check out their new trips at: http://www.trazzler.com/trips/tags/freelancer.
Christine Cantera: Offbeat Expat (missexpatria.wordpress.com/)
http://www.trazzler.com/trips/users/missexpatria
Tim Chester: London Insider
http://www.trazzler.com/trips/users/timchester
Katie Hammel: Luxury on the Cheap
http://www.trazzler.com/trips/users/katiehammel
Cheri Lucas: Driven by Obsessions (cherilucas.com)
http://www.trazzler.com/trips/users/clucas
Phillip Orchard: Poignant Places (philliporchard.com)
http://www.trazzler.com/trips/users/phildavid
Barbara Weibel: Seasoned Globetrotter (holeinthedonut.com)
http://www.trazzler.com/trips/users/barbaraw
Kara Williams: Mountain Mama (karaswilliams.com/)
http://www.trazzler.com/trips/users/karasw
We remain committed to dedicating 10%-15% of our budget (significantly more than major market newspapers) to freelance and part-time writers and editors. We still have a long list of other writers whose Trazzler trips caught our eye--this is only the beginning. So, please, keep submitting those trips so we can see what you can do. We read them all.
October's Theme: Mom and Pops
http://www.trazzler.com/trips/tags/mom-and-pop
We loved the response that we got to last month's plea to spread the word about our favorite mom-and-pops... So much so that we decided that we want to reward the very best "theme" trips that we receive each month.
October's Winner: Tina Jett (tinajett.com)
http://www.trazzler.com/trips/users/jett
Tina was already on our radar with her extremely well-loved and popular Carolina RollerGirls trip. But we thought she really embraced the local mom-and-pop genre:
- Going Loco for Locopops in Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina
- Getting Your Chocolate Fix at Escazu in Raleigh, North Carolina
- Becoming a Beadfreak at Ornamentea in Raleigh, North Carolina
So we awarded her a contract to write 10 more trips this month.
November's Theme: Urban Enigmas
http://www.trazzler.com/trips/tags/urban-enigma
Award: A $250 Contract to Write 10 Trips
This month, we want to dig into those enigmatic, secret corners of our cities and towns. Those hidden (sometimes in plain sight) places or phenomena that are mysterious, weird, unnerving, thought-provoking, inscrutable, evocative of a past long forgotten... Add the tag "urban enigma" to your trips and check out the link above to see the weird and wonderful places that others have submitted.
Happy Trazzling,
Megan Cytron and the Trazzler Team
Monday, November 3, 2008
Trazzler trips and user trips
Hello Trazzlers--
Over the past weeks, we've received quite a few questions about the different types of trips on the site--and even more queries about who writes our trips--so I thought I'd take a minute to explain how it all comes together.
Most of the trips on Trazzler.com were written by freelancers based all around the world. We focused on weekend destinations around big cities and dream trips all over the globe.
Then, in September, we opened up trip publishing to writers who applied and looked to recruit a new crop of freelancers and community managers. (Speaking of which, we are on the verge of announcing another round of freelance writers... thanks for hanging in there--we finally received some of our initial funding, albeit a bit behind schedule.)
To be honest, we weren't quite sure what kind of response we would get and whether users would embrace our (admittedly quirky) style and slant. You most certainly did--we still can't believe how good your submissions are and how many places in the world that never make it into traditional travel publications are popping up on Trazzler every single day.
Back to the trips... When you sign up to write for Trazzler and submit a trip, it is by default published as a "user trip." We then read through these trips and determine--one by one--which trips become Trazzler trips and go into the public tripstream. If necessary, we also find a photo for the trip at this time. Incidentally, when we make a trip a "Trazzler Trip," we automatically have this writer on our radar for future freelance opportunities.
User Trips and Trazzler Trips: a breakdown
User trips appear in the user's "My Trips" area and also at the bottom of the country and tag listings and search results. User trips are preceded by the username and either display the map of the location or the user's photo.
Trazzler trips appear in the tripstream--the procession of trips that you can move through by clicking "add to wishlist" and "skip to next." Trazzler trips display the writer's full name and a photo credit. They are also displayed with a photo thumbnail in the country and tag listings and search results and always rise to the top of these lists.
We're eager to get your feedback on this setup. What do you think?
What is our criteria for choosing Trazzler trips? First off, we believe that when someone takes the time to write about his favorite spot or a place that she can't get out of her mind, it is meaningful and valuable--whether we choose it as a Trazzler trip or not. We've read countless user trips that we sincerely hope that people will find and read, but that for one reason or another (see below) we couldn't make Trazzler trips.
Reasons a trip might not get published as a Trazzler Trip:
The place/activity:
--too similar to another Trazzler trip
--too broad or generic
--too conventional
--an event or place that might not stand the test of time
The style or writing:
--too long (over 120-140 words)
--too many exclamation points or superlatives
--too many hyperbolic adjectives: amazing, incredible, breathtaking, awesome
--rampant misspellings or questionable grammar
--chronically mixed metaphors
--run on sentences
The focus:
--smacks of shilling
--reads like a tourist brochure—no special angle, no hook
--includes extraneous info that is not related to the trip
--too many reasons not to go there/too negative
--too much first person (some is fine, too much biography make it harder to place the reader in the moment)
--offensive, exploitative, destructive, violent, or mean-spirited
See our writing guide and FAQ for more information and guidelines. And feel free to ignore the above guidelines if you prefer to just do your own thing and share your trips with friends, family, and fellow trazzlers.
More soon. In the meantime, why not check out some writing that will inspire you to dive into the falling autumn leaves (and add the tag "fall" to any of your own autumnal ruminations):
http://www.trazzler.com/trips/tags/fall
I, for one, plan to get outside this weekend (to the Sierra de Guadarrama--I promise to write a trip), change out my city air for pine-scented mountain air, play in the snow, and enjoy my first election-free moments in a long, long time.
--Megan
Thursday, October 16, 2008
Trazzler Updates and News, September/October 2008
Hello Trazzlers—
Welcome to our first monthly Trazzler newsletter.
The past month has been a whirlwind for us. We opened up publishing to users and writers; recruited writers and community managers; published hundreds of outstanding user-submitted trips; worked with more pilot bloggers; and launched Trazzler on the Facebook Platform.
The response from writers has surpassed our wildest dreams with hundreds and hundreds of trips pouring in from every corner of the globe. We've loved every minute of reading your beautiful, wonderful, weird, creative, poetic, and poignant trips. Every day we get more, so keep checking back, sending us feedback, and--please--keep writing.
A Little About Who We Are
Trazzler is not a front for a big evil corporation--we're a mom and pop turned global. Our small team is comprised of people from San Francisco, Florida, Madrid, Paris, Slovakia, Bangalore, Australia...
Moms, brothers, cousins, significant others, former coworkers, former significant others, and friends from kindergarten have all been tapped to pitch in. What you see on Trazzler.com is the culmination of many years of experience and countless hours of dreaming, scheming, planning, and hard work. And this is just the beginning.
Why Trazzler is Different
So many other travel sites are essentially reference books with logistical information, tourist bureau propaganda, or an unedited, overwhelming morass of useful and useless information. Guidebooks rely on just a handful of undercompensated writers to do it all. At Trazzler, you'll find what slips through the cracks everywhere else--those secret places that you might only tell your friends about... those defining travel moments that reside in your memory long after you have returned home.
Our Commitment to Writers
The vast majority of Trazzler Trips were written by a crack group of freelancers from all over the world. We will continue to commit a significant percentage of our budget to writing and editing, because we firmly believe that the success of Trazzler hinges on quality and creativity. In the next few weeks, we'll be hiring more writers (freelancers and community managers). We are also hatching plans to reward the best user trips. Sign up to write trips: http://trazzler.com/about/write-for-trazzler
To Trazzle: I Trazzle, You Trazzle, He/She Trazzles…
Each Trazzler Trip transports you to a very specific place and moment. Real human beings are behind each and every trip, carefully choosing the photo, writing the copy, and editing it. As you trazzle--clicking "skip to next" or "add to wishlist"--you decide what appeals to you and what doesn't. Trazzler is a savvy friend who will get to know your Travel Personality over time.* Use it as "virtual teleportation" (as Biz Stone imagined when the idea was hatched), travel therapy, a game, an escapist fantasy, or--we also hope--as a tool to learn about new ways to travel to one-of-a-kind spots and an outlet for your travel ruminations.
Trazzler on Facebook
In July, Trazzler was awarded a fbFund grant to take what we are doing on Trazzler.com to the Facebook platform. Last week we launched our Facebook application and would love for you to check it out and send us your thoughts. Send trips to Facebook friends, see where your friends want to go, tell your friends where you want to go, plan trips together:
http://apps.facebook.com/trazzler/
For the time being, your Trazzler.com Wishlist and Facebook Wishlist are separate. This will change soon as we bring your Facebook friends to Trazzler.com and sync accounts via Facebook Connect.
This Month's Trip Challenge: Mom and Pop
This is a tough time for the scrappy family-owned businesses that we know and love. So this month, we would like to pay homage to our favorite mom-and-pop places by writing about them. Why not submit a few trips about your favorite local joints and let others know about them by adding the tag "mom and pop"?
Mom and pop trips: http://trazzler.com/trips/tags/mom-and-pop
September/October: Best New Trips
It's agonizing to pick just a handful. We have received hundreds and hundreds of really top-notch trips. But here are just a few that caught our eye this month:
#9672 Jellyfishing (Without the Sting) at Jellyfish Lake in Palau http://www.trazzler.com/trips/jellyfish-lake-in-palau
Writer: Christopher Yurkanin
#211 Trekking to the Foot of the Franz Josef Glacier in New Zealand http://www.trazzler.com/trips/franz-josef-glacier-in-new-zealand
Writer: Barbara Weibel
#4265 Sitting Trackside for Roller Derby in Raleigh, North Carolina http://www.trazzler.com/trips/roller-derby-in-raleigh-north-carolina
Writer: Tina Jett
#1006 Eating a Highwayman's Feast at an Historic Pub in Hampstead, London http://www.trazzler.com/trips/spaniards-inn-hampstead-london
Writer: Tim Chester
September/October: Favorite Sentence/Metaphor
"If Sanibel is the prom queen of Gulf Coast islands, think of Pine
Island as her mangrove-encrusted tomboy little sister."
#419 Feasting on a Fresh Crab Omelet in Matlacha, Florida
http://www.trazzler.com/trips/perfect-cup-in-matlacha-florida
Writer: Cathy Salustri
September/October: Favorite Photo from a Flickr Photographer
#9865 Watching the Sunrise from the Charles Bridge in Prague
http://trazzler.com/trips/charles-bridge-prague
Photographer: David Smith, http://www.flickr.com/photos/smithdm3/
Writer: Amanda
September/October: Favorite User-Submitted Photo
#6228 Living Like the Garifuna in Cayos Cochinos, Honduras
http://www.trazzler.com/trips/garfuna-villiage-honduras
Writer and Photographer: Kirsten Hubbard
September/October: Featured Blogger
Jim Early at the North Carolina Barbecue Society travels in his own
backyard, spending countless hours researching the best old-school
barbecue in his state. He's a fascinating guy who is passionate
about his "obsession" and is working hard to preserve this North
Carolina tradition. I'll be blogging about him and our other
bloggers in a few days. In the meantime, check out his trips (more
coming soon) and sites.
http://www.trazzler.com/trips/users/ncbbqsociety
http://www.ncbbqsociety.com and http://www.jimearly.com
Where Do We Go From Here?
* Make the website social with Facebook Connect.
* We want to get better at personalizing your tripstream. With
thousands of trips to choose from, we want to show you those that
most closely match your preferences. This month, we had vegans
getting repeatedly visually bludgeoned by a photo of salamis and
outdoorsy types getting a pretty sleazy Vegas trip. That's not what
we want… The solution: make that algorithm geekier.
* Do something clever with the places you've been.
That's it for now. Throughout the month we'll be blogging here about
trips, news, and Trazzler ephemera.
Keep Trazzling!
Megan Cytron and the Trazzler Team
http://www.trazzler.com/trips/users/megancytron
Welcome to our first monthly Trazzler newsletter.
The past month has been a whirlwind for us. We opened up publishing to users and writers; recruited writers and community managers; published hundreds of outstanding user-submitted trips; worked with more pilot bloggers; and launched Trazzler on the Facebook Platform.
The response from writers has surpassed our wildest dreams with hundreds and hundreds of trips pouring in from every corner of the globe. We've loved every minute of reading your beautiful, wonderful, weird, creative, poetic, and poignant trips. Every day we get more, so keep checking back, sending us feedback, and--please--keep writing.
A Little About Who We Are
Trazzler is not a front for a big evil corporation--we're a mom and pop turned global. Our small team is comprised of people from San Francisco, Florida, Madrid, Paris, Slovakia, Bangalore, Australia...
Moms, brothers, cousins, significant others, former coworkers, former significant others, and friends from kindergarten have all been tapped to pitch in. What you see on Trazzler.com is the culmination of many years of experience and countless hours of dreaming, scheming, planning, and hard work. And this is just the beginning.
Why Trazzler is Different
So many other travel sites are essentially reference books with logistical information, tourist bureau propaganda, or an unedited, overwhelming morass of useful and useless information. Guidebooks rely on just a handful of undercompensated writers to do it all. At Trazzler, you'll find what slips through the cracks everywhere else--those secret places that you might only tell your friends about... those defining travel moments that reside in your memory long after you have returned home.
Our Commitment to Writers
The vast majority of Trazzler Trips were written by a crack group of freelancers from all over the world. We will continue to commit a significant percentage of our budget to writing and editing, because we firmly believe that the success of Trazzler hinges on quality and creativity. In the next few weeks, we'll be hiring more writers (freelancers and community managers). We are also hatching plans to reward the best user trips. Sign up to write trips: http://trazzler.com/about/write-for-trazzler
To Trazzle: I Trazzle, You Trazzle, He/She Trazzles…
Each Trazzler Trip transports you to a very specific place and moment. Real human beings are behind each and every trip, carefully choosing the photo, writing the copy, and editing it. As you trazzle--clicking "skip to next" or "add to wishlist"--you decide what appeals to you and what doesn't. Trazzler is a savvy friend who will get to know your Travel Personality over time.* Use it as "virtual teleportation" (as Biz Stone imagined when the idea was hatched), travel therapy, a game, an escapist fantasy, or--we also hope--as a tool to learn about new ways to travel to one-of-a-kind spots and an outlet for your travel ruminations.
Trazzler on Facebook
In July, Trazzler was awarded a fbFund grant to take what we are doing on Trazzler.com to the Facebook platform. Last week we launched our Facebook application and would love for you to check it out and send us your thoughts. Send trips to Facebook friends, see where your friends want to go, tell your friends where you want to go, plan trips together:
http://apps.facebook.com/trazzler/
For the time being, your Trazzler.com Wishlist and Facebook Wishlist are separate. This will change soon as we bring your Facebook friends to Trazzler.com and sync accounts via Facebook Connect.
This Month's Trip Challenge: Mom and Pop
This is a tough time for the scrappy family-owned businesses that we know and love. So this month, we would like to pay homage to our favorite mom-and-pop places by writing about them. Why not submit a few trips about your favorite local joints and let others know about them by adding the tag "mom and pop"?
Mom and pop trips: http://trazzler.com/trips/tags/mom-and-pop
September/October: Best New Trips
It's agonizing to pick just a handful. We have received hundreds and hundreds of really top-notch trips. But here are just a few that caught our eye this month:
#9672 Jellyfishing (Without the Sting) at Jellyfish Lake in Palau http://www.trazzler.com/trips/jellyfish-lake-in-palau
Writer: Christopher Yurkanin
#211 Trekking to the Foot of the Franz Josef Glacier in New Zealand http://www.trazzler.com/trips/franz-josef-glacier-in-new-zealand
Writer: Barbara Weibel
#4265 Sitting Trackside for Roller Derby in Raleigh, North Carolina http://www.trazzler.com/trips/roller-derby-in-raleigh-north-carolina
Writer: Tina Jett
#1006 Eating a Highwayman's Feast at an Historic Pub in Hampstead, London http://www.trazzler.com/trips/spaniards-inn-hampstead-london
Writer: Tim Chester
September/October: Favorite Sentence/Metaphor
"If Sanibel is the prom queen of Gulf Coast islands, think of Pine
Island as her mangrove-encrusted tomboy little sister."
#419 Feasting on a Fresh Crab Omelet in Matlacha, Florida
http://www.trazzler.com/trips/perfect-cup-in-matlacha-florida
Writer: Cathy Salustri
September/October: Favorite Photo from a Flickr Photographer
#9865 Watching the Sunrise from the Charles Bridge in Prague
http://trazzler.com/trips/charles-bridge-prague
Photographer: David Smith, http://www.flickr.com/photos/smithdm3/
Writer: Amanda
September/October: Favorite User-Submitted Photo
#6228 Living Like the Garifuna in Cayos Cochinos, Honduras
http://www.trazzler.com/trips/garfuna-villiage-honduras
Writer and Photographer: Kirsten Hubbard
September/October: Featured Blogger
Jim Early at the North Carolina Barbecue Society travels in his own
backyard, spending countless hours researching the best old-school
barbecue in his state. He's a fascinating guy who is passionate
about his "obsession" and is working hard to preserve this North
Carolina tradition. I'll be blogging about him and our other
bloggers in a few days. In the meantime, check out his trips (more
coming soon) and sites.
http://www.trazzler.com/trips/users/ncbbqsociety
http://www.ncbbqsociety.com and http://www.jimearly.com
Where Do We Go From Here?
* Make the website social with Facebook Connect.
* We want to get better at personalizing your tripstream. With
thousands of trips to choose from, we want to show you those that
most closely match your preferences. This month, we had vegans
getting repeatedly visually bludgeoned by a photo of salamis and
outdoorsy types getting a pretty sleazy Vegas trip. That's not what
we want… The solution: make that algorithm geekier.
* Do something clever with the places you've been.
That's it for now. Throughout the month we'll be blogging here about
trips, news, and Trazzler ephemera.
Keep Trazzling!
Megan Cytron and the Trazzler Team
http://www.trazzler.com/trips/users/megancytron
Friday, October 10, 2008
Trazzler on Facebook, Take 2
The first version of Trazzler on Facebook was a little quiz that gave you a travel personality and provided trip recommendations. The quiz questions were a bit goofy and the results were hardly scientific, but we liked the recommendations. With a modest amount of information and a pinch of good taste, we were able to provide decent suggestions.
One of our early users told us, "when I first added this application, the places and activities it suggested for me were absolutely accurate -- art, music, theater, museums." He went on to say that our accuracy petered out after 10 recommendations--and he was right. But unsurprisingly, a little bit of personalization made our recommendations sort of useful. At least more useful than the junk I've been getting in travel email newsletters for the last 10 years. I’ve probably seen more than 100,000 links in these travel emails and I can't recall clicking on any of them.
We liked the life our recommendations on Facebook took on, too. Email newsletters are confined to your inbox. On Facebook, good recommendations live on in the News Feed. We decided to build on this.
The second version of Trazzler on Facebook is much more sophisticated. Instead of a quiz, we have thousands of hand-crafted trips that you can browse and add to your Wishlist. Now it is you who gets to send recommendations--to your facebook friends. As you do this, Trazzler gets to know you and learns about your taste in travel in a more natural way. For now, we lean heavily on your location for your recommendations “algorithm”, but we have big plans to have Trazzler track the way users are adding trips and get much more sophisticated over time. We also tap into your social graph so you can see trips your friends like and see which trips have been wishlisted the most. This too will get better as we add compatibility matching.
We still have a lot more to do: bring your Facebook social graph to trazzler.com; merge your Facebook and Trazzler web accounts; widen our editorial coverage; develop a better algorithm. But we hope you like what we've got so far. Play with it, fantasize about trips with your friends, send them trips, and, please, let us know what you think.
One of our early users told us, "when I first added this application, the places and activities it suggested for me were absolutely accurate -- art, music, theater, museums." He went on to say that our accuracy petered out after 10 recommendations--and he was right. But unsurprisingly, a little bit of personalization made our recommendations sort of useful. At least more useful than the junk I've been getting in travel email newsletters for the last 10 years. I’ve probably seen more than 100,000 links in these travel emails and I can't recall clicking on any of them.
We liked the life our recommendations on Facebook took on, too. Email newsletters are confined to your inbox. On Facebook, good recommendations live on in the News Feed. We decided to build on this.
The second version of Trazzler on Facebook is much more sophisticated. Instead of a quiz, we have thousands of hand-crafted trips that you can browse and add to your Wishlist. Now it is you who gets to send recommendations--to your facebook friends. As you do this, Trazzler gets to know you and learns about your taste in travel in a more natural way. For now, we lean heavily on your location for your recommendations “algorithm”, but we have big plans to have Trazzler track the way users are adding trips and get much more sophisticated over time. We also tap into your social graph so you can see trips your friends like and see which trips have been wishlisted the most. This too will get better as we add compatibility matching.
We still have a lot more to do: bring your Facebook social graph to trazzler.com; merge your Facebook and Trazzler web accounts; widen our editorial coverage; develop a better algorithm. But we hope you like what we've got so far. Play with it, fantasize about trips with your friends, send them trips, and, please, let us know what you think.
Saturday, September 27, 2008
Can travel make us better people? Can it make the world a better place?
We knew that travel could provide a (desperately?) needed break from day-to-day life. And that, at its very best, it has the capacity to open minds, dispel stereotypes, and even make us better human beings. (And, at its worst, make us kiss the ground when we get home.)
But what about the places we visit? Is it possible that we can leave a place better than we found it, just by having traveled there? Our writers have found trips all over the world that do just this--without sacrificing an iota of the joy of travel.
Rose wrote about rainforests destined to be chopped down that are now being preserved because they are more valuable as ecotourist destinations. Our freelancers, Tracy Broom and Livia McRee, submitted trips that struck a balance between ecotravel, volunteer work, and animal encounters. Phillip Orchard wrote eloquently about the humanity of finding peace and relaxation in places where tourists seldom venture.
Preserving Rainforest/Wildlife/Local Culture:
Zipping From Tree to Tree With Gibbons in Bokeo, Laos
Embarking on an Ethical Elephant Trek in Hongsa, Laos
Voluntourism
Restoring Habitat for Wildlife in San Cristobal, Ecuador
Bathing Elephants at a Rescue Center in Bangkok, Thailand
Building a Kindergarten to Save Coral Reefs in Vanua Levu, Fiji
Protecting Sea Turtles in San Miguel, Costa Rica
Socially Conscious Travel to Unexpected Places
Relaxing in a Women's Prison in in Chiang Mai, Thailand
Basking in Peace on War-less CeCe Beach in Monrovia, Liberia
Travel experiences like these not only do good in the communities in question, they give us an opportunity to get deeper, to do something, and meet interesting and enterprising people off the well-beaten tourist path. If you contribute a trip that falls into this category, give it the tag "ethical travel" so that others can find it here:
http://www.trazzler.com/trips/tags/ethical-travel
But I don't think we have to travel halfway around the world to make a difference in people's lives and livelihoods. My next post is going to be about a fascinating person who has traveled close to home, making a herculean effort to save a beloved (and delicious) local cultural institution from homogenization and extinction... And you'll get to read all about it here on Trazzler.
--Megan
But what about the places we visit? Is it possible that we can leave a place better than we found it, just by having traveled there? Our writers have found trips all over the world that do just this--without sacrificing an iota of the joy of travel.
Rose wrote about rainforests destined to be chopped down that are now being preserved because they are more valuable as ecotourist destinations. Our freelancers, Tracy Broom and Livia McRee, submitted trips that struck a balance between ecotravel, volunteer work, and animal encounters. Phillip Orchard wrote eloquently about the humanity of finding peace and relaxation in places where tourists seldom venture.
Preserving Rainforest/Wildlife/Local Culture:
Zipping From Tree to Tree With Gibbons in Bokeo, Laos
Embarking on an Ethical Elephant Trek in Hongsa, Laos
Voluntourism
Restoring Habitat for Wildlife in San Cristobal, Ecuador
Bathing Elephants at a Rescue Center in Bangkok, Thailand
Building a Kindergarten to Save Coral Reefs in Vanua Levu, Fiji
Protecting Sea Turtles in San Miguel, Costa Rica
Socially Conscious Travel to Unexpected Places
Relaxing in a Women's Prison in in Chiang Mai, Thailand
Basking in Peace on War-less CeCe Beach in Monrovia, Liberia
Travel experiences like these not only do good in the communities in question, they give us an opportunity to get deeper, to do something, and meet interesting and enterprising people off the well-beaten tourist path. If you contribute a trip that falls into this category, give it the tag "ethical travel" so that others can find it here:
http://www.trazzler.com/trips/tags/ethical-travel
But I don't think we have to travel halfway around the world to make a difference in people's lives and livelihoods. My next post is going to be about a fascinating person who has traveled close to home, making a herculean effort to save a beloved (and delicious) local cultural institution from homogenization and extinction... And you'll get to read all about it here on Trazzler.
--Megan
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
Trazzler writers: you get it, you really, really get it
We knew there was a huge, untapped creative force out there, but we've just been blown away by the quality of the submissions that we are receiving (both from prospective writers/freelancers and regular users). Are we on to something here? We think so.
A lot of writers have wondered what our plans are. Are we really going to hire people to write trips? The answer is a resounding "yes"--in fact we already have. Most of the trips on the site were written by professional writers and we intend to always dedicate a high percentage of our budget to community leaders, content managers, and freelancers.
But we will also always have a special place in our (metaphorical, editorial) heart for users who trazzle and swap trips with friends and contribute for the sheer joy of writing and sharing their travel wisdom. In the coming months we will develop ways to reward you, as well, through prizes and contests.
We're just getting started, so the more users we get, the more we can build up the kind of permanent funding that would allow us to hire a constant, steady stream of contributors (subtext: please tell your friends, family, enemies, mechanic, dental hygenist, etc. about Trazzler.com).
<---end of spiel--->
So you can get a feel for what we like, I wanted to share a few of our favorites from the last batch of stellar submissions.
We loved motospike's SE Asia trips. The mom in me is especially glad he braved "Death Highway" and lived to write about it.
Best international trip
Scarfing Spicy Pad Thai on Khaosan Road, Bangkok (motospike)
And on the local front, we have a special weakness for people sharing their favorite spots close to home...
Best local trip
Jumping in the Lake with Man's Best Friends in Austin, Texas (laura)
And we also were quite taken by the quality of many of the photos submitted...
Best photos
Living Like the Garifuna in Cayos Cochinos, Honduras (changeling)
Motorcycling the Death Highway in Vietnam (motospike)
And, finally, we love writers who take a risk and write about something that 95% of the general public would probably never consider doing. This personal, quirky stuff so often falls through the cracks in traditional travel writing. There's just not space for it. We've got plenty of room here.
Best "you'll never find it in a guidebook" trip
Craning at Containers Piled High on Terminal Island, California (lars)
So come right in and write for that 5% who love to do the same stuff that you do (I've got a trip about driving through a steel mill in Cleveland coming soon--I have a feeling Lars would dig it).
More soon...
--Megan
Friday, September 12, 2008
Write for Trazzler
If you are reading this blog, then you must be wondering why anyone would be crazy enough to launch a travel site start-up at the tail end of the summer of the staycation (how I loathe this term!). I don't know about you, but personally I need the escape of travel more than ever before. I love my day-to-day life, but it's intense and it's easy to forget that the rest of the world really exists outside of the self-absorbed confines of Madrid.
As I write this, I'm sitting in a little house in "el pueblo más raro de Andalucía" (Andalusia's weirdest town, as our friend who loaned us his apartment calls it). This place has zero tourist interest. When I plugged my laptop into a Franco-era outlet, my power cord caught on fire. Wifi? You've got to be kidding. Every evening families leave their front doors open and eat dinner. When you walk down the street, you can't help but be a voyeur--it's like peering into dozens of living dollhouses. When we went to the local public pool the kids flocked around us as if we were endangered animals in a zoo (my paleness is pretty freakish here). Every day, we drive through the dusty hills dotted with toros bravos to the windy, nearly abandoned beaches, look across at the dark mountains of Morocco, check out Roman ruins and white medieval towns perched on hills, eat sea anemones and reproductive organs from tuna from the Strait of Gibraltar. For a lot of people, this would be the vacation from hell and for us it's the best one ever.
And, for me, that's what Trazzler is about. So many other travel sites are essentially reference books with logistical information, tourist bureau propaganda, or an unedited, overwhelming morass of useful and useless information. Guidebooks rely on just a handful of undercompensated writers to do it all. When I started writing for Trazzler, I quickly realized that it was completely different from any other assignment. Here, a writer creates his or her own beat. There's no pressure to write about places you don't know or care anything about. No need to create trips that appeal to everyone. Here you'll find what slips through the cracks everywhere else--those secret places that you might only tell your friends about... those defining travel moments that reside in your memory long after you have returned home.
What we want to do is create a world of travel possibilities. Each Trazzler Trip transports you to a very specific place and moment. Real human beings are behind each and every trip, carefully choosing the photo, writing the copy, and editing it. You decide what appeals to you and what doesn't. Trazzler is a savvy friend who will get to know your Travel Personality over time. You can use it as "virtual teleportation" (as Biz Stone imagined when the idea was hatched), travel therapy, a game, an escapist fantasy, or--we also hope--as a tool to learn about new ways to travel to one-of-a-kind spots and an outlet for your travel ruminations.
More later, but I just wanted to give a shout-out to the smart and creative people behind this site. I worked with Adam Rugel over twelve years ago at AOL, writing ad copy for everything from frozen steaks to the Weekly World News. He moved onward and upward to specialize in online travel sites (and I took the escape route into the world of freelance writing, design, and perpetual studentdom). Trazzler is the culmination of many years of experience, experimentation, inspiration, planning, and dreaming. It's not going to be anything like anything else out there. And it's just going to get better.
So sign up and take this crazy journey with us, then take a crack at writing your own trips. But, be warned, if you are really astute and analytical, we'll rope you into helping us--we're wily that way. Let us know what you think.
--Megan Cytron
As I write this, I'm sitting in a little house in "el pueblo más raro de Andalucía" (Andalusia's weirdest town, as our friend who loaned us his apartment calls it). This place has zero tourist interest. When I plugged my laptop into a Franco-era outlet, my power cord caught on fire. Wifi? You've got to be kidding. Every evening families leave their front doors open and eat dinner. When you walk down the street, you can't help but be a voyeur--it's like peering into dozens of living dollhouses. When we went to the local public pool the kids flocked around us as if we were endangered animals in a zoo (my paleness is pretty freakish here). Every day, we drive through the dusty hills dotted with toros bravos to the windy, nearly abandoned beaches, look across at the dark mountains of Morocco, check out Roman ruins and white medieval towns perched on hills, eat sea anemones and reproductive organs from tuna from the Strait of Gibraltar. For a lot of people, this would be the vacation from hell and for us it's the best one ever.
And, for me, that's what Trazzler is about. So many other travel sites are essentially reference books with logistical information, tourist bureau propaganda, or an unedited, overwhelming morass of useful and useless information. Guidebooks rely on just a handful of undercompensated writers to do it all. When I started writing for Trazzler, I quickly realized that it was completely different from any other assignment. Here, a writer creates his or her own beat. There's no pressure to write about places you don't know or care anything about. No need to create trips that appeal to everyone. Here you'll find what slips through the cracks everywhere else--those secret places that you might only tell your friends about... those defining travel moments that reside in your memory long after you have returned home.
What we want to do is create a world of travel possibilities. Each Trazzler Trip transports you to a very specific place and moment. Real human beings are behind each and every trip, carefully choosing the photo, writing the copy, and editing it. You decide what appeals to you and what doesn't. Trazzler is a savvy friend who will get to know your Travel Personality over time. You can use it as "virtual teleportation" (as Biz Stone imagined when the idea was hatched), travel therapy, a game, an escapist fantasy, or--we also hope--as a tool to learn about new ways to travel to one-of-a-kind spots and an outlet for your travel ruminations.
More later, but I just wanted to give a shout-out to the smart and creative people behind this site. I worked with Adam Rugel over twelve years ago at AOL, writing ad copy for everything from frozen steaks to the Weekly World News. He moved onward and upward to specialize in online travel sites (and I took the escape route into the world of freelance writing, design, and perpetual studentdom). Trazzler is the culmination of many years of experience, experimentation, inspiration, planning, and dreaming. It's not going to be anything like anything else out there. And it's just going to get better.
So sign up and take this crazy journey with us, then take a crack at writing your own trips. But, be warned, if you are really astute and analytical, we'll rope you into helping us--we're wily that way. Let us know what you think.
--Megan Cytron
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
Trazzler Awarded fbFund Grant
Trazzler was born when we evolved Biz's compelling "virtual teleportation" concept into a Facebook application. Experimenting with the Facebook platform inspired rapid innovation the idea turned from app to full-fledged startup. Recently, Trazzler.com has consumed all of our attention. However, we continue to believe the Facebook platform holds brilliant potential. Today, we're thrilled to announce that our efforts on the Facebook platform will accelerate, thanks to a very significant grant from the fbFund. Later this summer we plan to launch a complete online travel experience within Facebook with full Trazzler.com integration.
People have told me we're crazy—that a tiny startup can't build a sustainable online travel business in such a highly competitive space. Narrow thinking. An agile startup taking advantage of the Facebook platform has super power advantages. Facebook is the place where 90 million people are spending time, communicating, and sharing online. By delivering highly targeted, personalized travel information within the context of Facebook's social environment, our chances of building a substantial user base grow exponentially.
Trazzler's mission is to free people from the distractions and cruft of online travel research. Clear your mind and ask yourself, "Where would I rather be right now?" Then flip through trip pages designed to place you emotionally in a moment with great photography and expert travel writing. Discover travel experiences with a more natural, meandering online experience. Add to your wishlist, explore your travel personality, and take a more inspired approach to online travel—Trazzler is about making it fun.
Here's me talking about all of this at f8: Video.
People have told me we're crazy—that a tiny startup can't build a sustainable online travel business in such a highly competitive space. Narrow thinking. An agile startup taking advantage of the Facebook platform has super power advantages. Facebook is the place where 90 million people are spending time, communicating, and sharing online. By delivering highly targeted, personalized travel information within the context of Facebook's social environment, our chances of building a substantial user base grow exponentially.
Trazzler's mission is to free people from the distractions and cruft of online travel research. Clear your mind and ask yourself, "Where would I rather be right now?" Then flip through trip pages designed to place you emotionally in a moment with great photography and expert travel writing. Discover travel experiences with a more natural, meandering online experience. Add to your wishlist, explore your travel personality, and take a more inspired approach to online travel—Trazzler is about making it fun.
Here's me talking about all of this at f8: Video.
Monday, June 23, 2008
I Always Thought Online Travel Should Be Fun...
In 1995 I abandoned the hostel-hopping circuit for my first real job, at AOL in Tysons Corner, Virginia. Traveling was definitely more fun than working at AOL, so when a position came up with AOL Travel, I thought it would be better because of the "travel" in the title. The job had its moments, but I learned there was a great divide between "travel" and "traveling".
I left AOL in 2002 itching to do something in travel that was fun. My friend Dave and I made several travel-related pilots for TV, including Bargain Travel Minute, Hostel Days and a bunch more. We spent some time in Los Angeles, had an agent at ICM, pitched a show to MTV — that was fun.
When I came back to San Francisco in 2004, I spent a year working at pre-podcasting company AudioFeast, then another at the podcasting pioneer Odeo. When Odeo morphed into Twitter, I continued to work in the office and eat the snacks, but I started working on my own project, 71Miles.
During my three-year hiatus from online travel, there was a lot of innovation and the creation of a number of new products, but almost all of it centered on search and price. Arbitrage can bring about useful results, but fun?
Trazzler is our attempt to bring at a much-needed dose of the fun of traveling into the world of online travel.
I left AOL in 2002 itching to do something in travel that was fun. My friend Dave and I made several travel-related pilots for TV, including Bargain Travel Minute, Hostel Days and a bunch more. We spent some time in Los Angeles, had an agent at ICM, pitched a show to MTV — that was fun.
When I came back to San Francisco in 2004, I spent a year working at pre-podcasting company AudioFeast, then another at the podcasting pioneer Odeo. When Odeo morphed into Twitter, I continued to work in the office and eat the snacks, but I started working on my own project, 71Miles.
During my three-year hiatus from online travel, there was a lot of innovation and the creation of a number of new products, but almost all of it centered on search and price. Arbitrage can bring about useful results, but fun?
Trazzler is our attempt to bring at a much-needed dose of the fun of traveling into the world of online travel.
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