Travelgrove, a global travel search engine has launched a new travel application on Facebook. Travelgrove's application is a combination of existing applications already available on the social networking site. The travel search engine that lets you search for cheap flights, hotels, car rentals, and vacations, has combined many of the sites powerful travel tools on a single application. By adding the "Friends & Travel Map" to their Facebook profiles, users can map friends, destinations, hotels and even show recently found airfares from their home airport to their friends. Additionally, the application features an integrated travel search engine that can search and compare many hundred websites worldwide.
For the first time an application on Facebook integrates all the functionality a complete travel website has to offer. Going forward, there simply won't be a need to leave Facebook in order to access great travel tools.
Since Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook has made his platform open to third party developers, many new applications have been built. Among these applications are many that are adding little or no value to users. According to Peter Suhayda, CEO and co-founder of Travelgrove.com, "nobody wants another social network for travelers, nobody needs that, but enabling users of other social networks to use travel related tools can be very valuable". According to Mr. Suhayda there are several reasons why some of the applications now available on Facebook are this popular. They are easily shared, they are easily removed, they do not seem commercial, and the applications are not hosted on users' own computers, so there is no security risk. This means that Facebook can be seen as the Internet inside the Internet or an operating system hosted online.
Travelgrove wants to focus on building useful applications first and then slowly use the applications to promote the travel search engines products and services. "The most important thing for now is that we provide users with something they really need, because in today's Web 2.0 environment people choose what they want to see when and where", says Mr. Suhayda. Indeed, marketers have to adjust to the new environment where users are in full control of the content that they see on their profile pages. Building promotional tools will often backfire in this environment, a fact that even Facebook itself had to experience when it started its beacon application last year.
"Friends & Travel Map" version 1.0 is now available and will be developed further to give full access to all the services available through Travelgrove's website.
Travelgrove's "Friends & Travel Map" can be found on Facebook's search or directly at http://apps.facebook.com/friends-n-travel-map/
About Travelgrove
Travelgrove is a global travel search company. Travelgrove's media properties, which reach more than 1/2 million travel enthusiasts in the U.S., Canada, France, Germany, Hong Kong and the U.K. include the Travelgrove Web site (http://www.travelgrove.com/flight), the GroveZine Newsletter, the FareDetective Web site (http://www.faredetective.com), and the Metafares Web site (http://www.metafares.com). Travelgrove publishes offers from more than 100 partner websites. Travelgrove's deal experts review