The first thing I do when I get to a new city is to ask my friends about the places they’ve been. Sure, I could go get a copy of Lonely Planet or wander around asking people on the street, but that usually lands you directly in the land of cheesy t-shirt slogans, expensive key chains and overpriced lunch.
Much like Facebook’s recent addition of Clicker to its “Instant Personalization” program, today’s addition of TripAdvisor brings friends’ recommendations and opinions to a realm where friends really do matter – travel.
TripAdvisor, much as the name suggests, helps with planning all the details to your traveling, from restaurants to hotels to the sights you’ll see. You’ve likely already seen one bit of the site, as it has a popular Facebook app called Cities I’ve Visited, which allows users to share places they’ve been, plan on going, and have advice about.
The addition of TripAdvisor to Facebook’s Instant Personalization program means that the site will automatically recommend content according to your Facebook friends. As Facebook points out in its blog, the partnership comes just in time for holiday travel, so if you were planning on taking part of the mayhem that is midtown Manhattan, maybe one of your Facebook friends will be wise enough to direct you to a quieter part of town for an off-Broadway show.
