TravBuddy, a social network for travelers

TravBuddy is a social network for travelers developed by brothers, Eric and David Bjorndahl. With social networks springing up for every conceivable niche, travel focussed sites remain a popular and credible use of the format. TravBuddy (like most of its competitors) lets users keep a 'travel blog', write reviews of destinations, and upload and share photos. Other social networking features include profiles, the ability to 'add friends', groups, and messaging.

TravBuddy also integrates nicely with Google Maps, so that reviews and blog entries can be 'pinned' to a user's personal travel map.

There's certainly a lot of value in travelers participating in a social network like TravBuddy. For example, users can input their future locations to find and meet up with "travel buddies" going to the same places that they are, or use the service to share travel tips and advice with each other.

Additionally, keeping a travel journal is a long time tradition, and I know many people whose first (and only) foray into blogging was whilst 'on the road'.

Overall, I found TravBuddy to be a nicely designed and very easy to use site; it's clear that the developers have spent a lot of time on the details (like Google Maps integration). It's by no means the only site of its kind, but TravBuddy will prove fun and useful for those with nomadic tendencies.

If you are a company about to launch an exciting new social web service or product and would like me to take a look, get in touch.