TripAdvisor

Yesterday we looked at job aggregator traffic. Today we take a look at two sites that are major players in the travel planning and booking space. I took a lot at a variety of travel sites and two stood out: Expedia and TripAdvisor. I use both sites but for different purposes. I am part of the TripAdvisor community and also use the service for hotel reviews. I use Expedia for price information across hotel chains.

The chart below is very interesting - the traffic to both sites nearly is identical. Both sites appear to be running 600,000 daily unique visitors and that amounts to 18,000,000 monthly uniques. The charts get even closer in May and June.

The Telegraph newspaper in the U.K. has compiled their list of the 101 most useful sites online today. There is a variety of worldwide sites plus some local favorites. Check out the entire list and below are a few of my notes. They smartly stuck Digg in at 40 so as to maximize the chance of getting on the frontpage.

The top 10 are: Google, Anonymouse, iLounge, Only2Clicks, Zoho, Backpack, GetNetWise, DaFont, Pando, and FlipClips. In the social category, Facebook, Flickr, Technorati, and Wordpress are the big names. Engadget looks like the only blog on the list.

The Beijing Olympics site comes in at 22, Radio Locator at 23. The Eggcorn Database, Wiktionary, About.com (why?), UK Legal advice from Legal Services Shop, Babelfish (love the fish), Noise Mapping England (we could use this for NYC!). Nice to see The Man in Seat 61 getting some love along with one of my top 10, SeatGuru. The first one that crosses my mind that should have been on the list in the travel category is TripAdvisor - how can you travel without visiting this site?

If you could only pick one Web site, which would be your most useful site? The one you just couldn't live without?

With AOL's acquisition of Bebo yesterday, and now discussion of a possible KickApps acquisition by AOL, I thought it might be interesting to take a look at some other content candidates for AOL acquisition. If AOL is going to get serious about stepping back into the major leagues, they need more top notch content sites. All of these acquisition ideas would work well with Userplane, AIM, ICQ and Bebo, all AOL-owned companies.

CafeMom

This NY-based startup is targeted at moms and would be an excellent complement for AOL's branded Web sites. CafeMom is currently serving 100 million pageviews and an average of 200 pages per user per month. This would make a great place for Platform-A and could be an extension for the Bebo "engagement marketing" platform. (our coverage)

Dogster/Catster

A niche social network for barking and meowing, Dogster and Catster could fit into the AOL branded sites as well. An acquisition of Dogster and Catster by AOL would give both sites new distribution opportunities along with a new advertising partner. (our coverage)

TripAdvisor

I am guessing that a decent percentage of TripAdvisor users are already AOL customers, either as dial-up, broadband or Web site visitors. TripAdvisor is currently owned by Expedia but I think the match would be better with AOL -- could replace the AOL Travel site. The TripAdvisor network serves pages to 60 million unique visitors a month and includes 8 web sites including my favorite, SeatGuru. (our coverage)

SimplyHired

It seems in the time since I started CN there's been chatter here and there about SimplyHired being acquired by someone. It's a better acquisition target than going after a job site as SimplyHired would give AOL the best of both worlds: all the job listings from the major job boards plus the ability to enhance listings to generate even more revenue. The publisher job board option would give AOL a potential "in" to publishers to push Platform A and other potential partnerships. (our coverage)

Which services do you think would be a good fit for AOL?

Editor's note: KickApps is a sponsor on our sister site, HTMLCenter.

Last week we wrote about the TripAdvisor redesign and how disappointed we were with it. Today TripAdvisor gets some redemption points with a list of the funniest traveler comments of the past year. Here's the list:

Not So Great Expectations

"I could have done without the blood-stained mattress and the (actual) chunk of poop on my bedspread, but I didn't expect the Hilton."

continue reading »

Many of you know that I am a travel nut. Sadly I could tell you more about transit and hotels than any human should ever know. And to that end, one of my favorite sites over the years has always been TripAdvisor. I was a major member of the community/forums years ago (not so much anymore) and have always struggled with the site - it's completely 1998 with tons of ads and just bits of content with piled on ads. But the content that's there is the strongest online. Nothing else compares to TripAdvisor - FlyerTalk comes close but it's different. TripAdvisor is mainstream travel folks and FlyerTalk is for travel nuts like me.

So when I learned today that they relaunched the site today, I bought a cake with candles and everything! Sadly I am a bit disappointed - actually - I am very disappointed. All they did was slap an updated design on the site - I don't see any real added functionality over the previous version. The ads are much cleaner now which is a huge improvement over the previous version so kudos on that front.

Though I will say that TripAdvisor kicks Mahalo's arse on travel pages. Jason loves to run around with his pups shouting about his Paris Hotels page (even used it in LeWeb) and how much better it is than Google's results. Hey Jason - why don't you compare yours to TripAdvisor sometime :) The TripAdvisor page has thousands of hotels with thousands of real reviews and customizations, etc. Not a static page that barely gets updated.

So where does TripAdvisor need to go? Baby steps so as not to scare their mainstream user base. First, they need to acquire TripIt. Second, they need to start to focus on the 2nd generation of Internet users who want something more than just great hotel reviews. Think about sites such as Dopplr, Plazes, Driftr, etc. and look at creating a more social travel site -- I know you have trip sharing but that's still barely into 2nd gen. And yes, I understand your bread is buttered on affiliate shares.