Driftr Moves Into Public Beta; Launches New Features

We originally reviewed Driftr back in December when they launched a closed alpha of their travel social network. This Wednesday Driftr will move into beta and will be open to the public. We noted regarding the site, "Driftr is basically a trip blog. Research is completed by visiting other's trip reports/blogs on the location you plan to visit. Here's a sample from a trip to New York. I think a Twitter-style feed would make the site more sticky if I could upload live trip updates to the site."

They have listened to us (thank you!) and have added a friend's travel feed -- you can see an example in the screenshot below. I wonder if they could tie in/send to updates from Twitter and Pownce -- that'd be hot.

In addition to the feed, co-founder Erick Laubach sent over the following list of new features:

• Ability to tracks upcoming trips for friends
• Better destination research tool
• Larger photos

Laubach also notes that they are working on third-party photo integration  -- I assume with Flickr, Photobucket, etc. Dopplr appears to be the travel social networking site with the most buzz currently but Driftr is sexier and sleeker. Driftr will need to work on buzz creation now that the public will be able to use the site.