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May 30, 2008
A picture is worth a thousand words
The mesh conference took place last week in Toronto. Founded by a number of Canadian entrepreneurs and journalists, this three-day event focused on how the Web is changing the way we work, live and play. Sponsored by Edelman, I’ve been lucky enough to go every year and learn about trends and insights in the new media space.
One of the mesh founders, Mark Evans, formerly of the National Post, works with an interesting travel site called PlanetEye. It’s a resource designed to help travellers quickly “research, organize and share their trips” using both a community of contributors and local experts.
What caught my eye when I first visited the site were the jaw-dropping travel photos at the top of the main page. They are all geo-tagged and mapped out to each of the destinations. Browsing the destinations brings up a nifty, zoom-able map with bubbles of the photos taken in each part of the city, country or world you’re currently looking at.
It’s an excitingly visual way to plan travel and search destinations. Imagine choosing which attractions, hotels or restaurants you visit based on how visually appealing they are? I came across a photo of a fruit market on Gage Street in Hong Kong, not far from where I used to live, that immediately brought me back to that wonderful part of the world. Not to mention that it made me think about going there again!
PlanetEye also builds on that premise with community user reviews and rankings of different hotels, restaurants and attractions. Currently some parts of the world have more photos uploaded than others, but if you believe a picture is worth a thousand words when it comes to travel, then take a few minutes to explore this site.
Posted by rob.manne at May 30, 2008 5:02 PM