AOL Adds 19,000 More Travel Guides

AOL has added 19,000 more travel guides to their beta AOL Travel Destination Guides bringing the total number of guides to just over 21,000. I have played with the service a bit and I just find it lacking overall. Sure it’s easy for AOL to create a page about NYC, but what does it contain? I can’t search on a hotel I am interested in, playing with the ratings slidebar produces errors, and I am thrown from look to look to look to Travelocity sometimes.  It’s like one big ad with very little actual information.

I think AOL should look to acquire TripAdvisor. While the site is overrun with ads, TA is the best online community for travel information. No matter what hotel I have searched for in the U.S. or Europe, it’s always there with plenty of reviews and information which is so critical to help decide the duds from the good hotels and attractions. TripAdvisor is similar to Yelp except with a lower average income bracket.

If I had my way, AOL would merge with Yahoo and then TripAdvisor would merge into the new YahooOL.