mobissimo Launches MobiFriends Collaborative Community
So, looks like the travel space is heating up this summer. Get it? See what I did there? Heat. Summer. Travel. I swear, with news puns like this, I should be on the local news busting out fake laughter and bad news puns. Back to you, Steve.
Right. mobissimo. They are billing themselves as “the world’s most comprehensive travel search engine”, and now they’re introducing social features. From their press release:
With MobiFriends, travelers are connected to other friends, colleagues, and family, as well as a global network of savvy travelers. When using Mobissimo to plan upcoming trips, users can see who from their network is in the same town during their visit or read their trusted recommendations for favorite restaurants, hotels, activities, and entertainment spots. In turn, travelers can share their own favorites for every city they’ve visited with their Mobifriends social network – all through a friendly widget located on the user’s dashboard and search results page. MobiFriends helps travelers make more informed decisions based on the trusted opinions of their friends, combining the benefits of online travel search with the power of social networking, trip reviews, and location-based networks.
So, you can search for trips, then let all your friends know when and where you’re going. If you have lots of friends scattered around the world, this service may be a good way to reconnect with your buddies.
But I have to admit I’m a little bit confused. I signed up for mobissimo, and tried to check out the MobiFriends service, but am left with more questions than answers.
After joining the site, I searched a trip from Boston to San Diego. I then added the trip to my MobiFriends Widget:
But I can’t see anyone that’s been to San Deigo, as no one is in my network:
So in order to be able to get value from the new offering, I’d have to invite my friends on facebook, myspace, orkut, etc., or scrape my email account and invite people that way.
I have to admit that I don’t use travel sites a lot, so I’m not sure if adding social features represents a significant improvement over other travel sites. But I’d have to think when planning a trip with friends, it would definitely be convenient to have everyone’s flight plans accessible in one place.
If you use travel sites like kayak, TripAdvisor, etc., I’d love to hear what you think of mobissimo.
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When it comes to travel, I just want the best price at the right places and right times. I like the simple design and usability of Kayak. I don’t see the value of the social aspects of this site because I would need everyone I know to sign up for it to really be valuable and even then I don’t know if I need that social network for my travel sites.
They do claim to search the most sites, so I’ll give them a chance on my next few trips and see if they can get me a better deal than Kayak. But they are on a short leash. Kayak earned my loyalty by time and time again finding me the best prices, not because it has *fun* social tools.