Posts tagged facebook

As quite a few astute trazzlers have pointed out, we’re running woefully behind on sending out our mid-January newsletter, which means we haven’t been able to announce the winners of our December contest. Our excuse: we’ve been working furiously to launch some big improvements to the site. (You can try them now by going to Trazzler.com and clicking the “facebook connect” button. If you have an existing trazzler.com account, be sure to sync it. Let us know what you think.)

So, to keep the contest wheels in motion, we’ll announce last month’s winners and next month’s contest here on the blog. We’d like to make this a monthly blog post, so we get a chance to talk more in depth about our favorites—you can also check in any time @trazzler on Twitter).

New January/February Contest—On the Beaten Path
http://www.trazzler.com/trips/tags/on-the-beaten-path
End date: February 25, 12pm EST; 5pm GMT
Prize: a $250 contract to write 10 trips

This month, we’re offering the challenge of writing about places that are in the middle of the proverbial “beaten path.” Those attractions or places of touristic pilgrimage that may often be overrun with out-of-towners, but are still entirely worth the visit. We have a hunch that trazzlers will have a smart take on how best to experience these temples of tourism. Whether that means zooming in on a very specific aspect of the place, writing from a purely subjective slant, giving up local secrets, appealing to a particular audience’s interests, or delving deeper into the reason(s) why the place draws us to it like moths to the flame.

With just a bit of context and focus (be it historical, cultural, aesthetic, etc.), the meaning of these places can surge to the forefront, while the throngs retreat into the background. I’ll be writing about some of my favorite on-the-beaten-path (and quite misunderstood) attractions in Madrid—the Guernica painting by Picasso, the Retiro park, Goya’s Black Paintings at the Prado, the Palacio Real, Botín Restaurant, the Cava Baja tapas street, Plaza de Santa Ana, etc.).

Just put the tag “on the beaten path” in your trips and they will show up here:
http://www.trazzler.com/trips/tags/on-the-beaten-path

December Contest—Cold Recap
http://www.trazzler.com/trips/tags/cold
So how do trazzlers cope with the cold? Steamy baths, hot springs, warm beverages, hard alcohol, plenty of pints, semi-illicit drugs, woolly blankets, winter sports, long walks, copious body heat, physical exertion, migration, hibernation… we are happy to report that there wasn’t a snuggie in the bunch. (Viewed from across the Atlantic, I have to say that this slanket/snuggie thing is pretty incomprehensible…)

This month’s submissions ranged from laugh-out-loud funny to poetic to tragic (many cold places are melting away before our very eyes). Across the board, the quality of the writing was exceptional, which made choosing a winner quite difficult… So we ended up with four winners. Each of these writers gave us shivers in the physical and literary sense (and two strangely managed to do so on the Equator—no mean feat). The fact that all four happen to be in far-flung places is a coincidence… We love local trips just as much as exotic ones. We just felt that these particular trips best plotted a sensory map of exactly what it feels like to be in these cold, cold places (and still made us want to go).

December’s Winners:

Greg Thomas
#3864 Bellyflopping Into the Icy Songhua River in Harbin, China
#14441 Freezing Your Butt Off for Fun in Harbin, China
Sideshows are a tough genre, but Greg did a stellar job of sketching out the humor, humanity, and absurdity of this ice-diving extravaganza. Harbin looks like quite a nexus of interesting cultural phenomena.

Paul Koning
#10255 Bundling Up on the Equator in Kenya
This trip took us to a cold, tropical place in the hours just before sunrise. Paul lived in Kenya and has written a series of excellent trips about the natural and cultural beauty of this country.

Tai Kuncio
#8658 Scaling to the Highest Point From the Center of the Earth in Ecuador
We loved learning about this place, which is not only freezing cold and far above the clouds, but also the farthest point from the center of the earth.

Jeff Jenkins
http://jeffmapped.blogspot.com/
#8274 Wooling Away Cold, Willing Down Tea in Laguna Colorada, Bolivia
We don’t often publish trips written in the first person, but this one transported us straight to that barren landscape with its thin air, palette of reds, coca leaves, stinky wool blankets, and stark concrete-block walls.

Here are some of our other favorites:

#6072 Swimming in a Caldera in Deception Bay, Antarctica
#6474 Falling Downhill at Winter Park Ski Resort in Colorado
#10975 Flight-Seeing Around the Alaska Range in Talkeetna, Alaska
#11883 Sipping Hot Chocolate at Perito Moreno in El Calafate, Argentina
#3359 Plucking Cold, Flowing Noodles from a Bamboo Trough in Fukui, Japan
#13778 Shivering at a Magnificent Snow Festival in Hokkaido, Japan
#13675 Exploring Dizzying Heights From a Bird’s Eye View in New Zealand
#12200 Eskimo-Kissing at the Coolest Bar Around in Rome, Italy

And have a look at the trips that we commissioned from our previous contest winners:

Gareth Thornton (Urban Enigma Contest Winner)
Dublin, Ireland
http://www.trazzler.com/trips/users/gazthornton

Amanda Scotese (Urban Enigma Contest Winner)
Chicago, Illinois, USA
http://www.trazzler.com/trips/users/ascotese

Tina Jett (Mom and Pop Contest Winner)
Raleigh, North Carolina, USA
http://www.trazzler.com/trips/users/jett

That’s it for now. Look for an announcement very soon on the new features that are launching on the site. In the meantime, you can take a sneak peek and let us know what you think on twitter (@trazzler) or Get Satisfaction.


—Megan

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

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.