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A paperback travel guide can recommend hotels and sightseeing activities for the general public, but the writers of these guides have no way of knowing what individual readers would most like to see and do. For that kind of personalized information, people are turning to Trippy. Trippy is an application that taps into the experience of a user’s online friends to deliver spot-on vacation advice.

Whether you’re going on the trip of a lifetime next month or a brief getaway next weekend, you should sign on to Trippy and check out how it can help before you walk out the door. Type in where you’re going and when you’re leaving, then sign in to the site through Facebook. The more information you put in about your trip, the more helpful your friends can be. After you’ve added a description of the trip and a list of the activities you’re dying to try, you’ll want to click on photos of any Facebook friends who might have advice that you’d like to seek out. The friends you’ve selected will see a wall post inviting them to help out with your trip. In mere minutes, you’ll start seeing personalized recommendations about everything from hotels to shopping districts on your Trippy trip page. In addition to your Facebook account, Trippy also ties into your connections on Foursquare and Twitter. When you’ve gathered enough information to make an informed decision, click “Add to trip” and you can make reservations and bookings for thousands of hotels directly from the Trippy site.

People who download the Trippy mobile app can upload photos to their trip pages from their phones while their trips are still in progress, showing friends just how great their recommendations and ideas turned out. Trippy also has a useful “copy” feature, which lets friends copy entire trip itineraries to use as inspiration for future trips and getaways.

Practical Uses:

• Get hotel recommendations in Paris from friends who’ve visited recently
• Find out which restaurants to check out while you’re in Miami
• Offer information about New York to a friend who’s going next month
• Share photos of yourself enjoying the restaurants your friends recommended

Insider Tips:

• Trippy users must login with a Facebook account
• The auto-complete tool helps people recommend obscure hotels and restaurants when they can’t remember the full names
• To recommend something not in the Trippy database just type +add after the name
• Anyone who you’ve shared your vacation plan with can view your trip page

What we liked:

• Trippy helps cut through the online clutter when planning vacations
• The recommendations people get from friends are always going to be more tailored than what they could get from a book or website.
• The mobile app lets people share their adventures on the road
• Friends can copy each other’s trip plans to use when planning their own vacations

What we didn’t like:

• Trippy offers an iPhone app, but not an Android app

Alternatives:

• Gogobot – http://www.gogobot.com

Company Info:

• Launched: 2011
• Privately Held
• Founded by: J.R. Johnson
• Web site: http://www.trippy.com

Costs:

• Free

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