DanLin.net

Driftr.com is a new traveler centric social networking site. I just got my invite last night and gave it a quick spin around the block.

The alpha release has a nice and polished Web 2.0 design with plenty of AJAX. As it is still a alpha release, many of the features are still not enabled. The site lets you log the time, place and details of the trips you have taken and organizes them via a visual map display or chronological drop down list. You can upload photos directly to driftr.com or link your flickr photos to their site via the flickr API.

Driftr allows you to enter places you stayed as well as places you ate at which I guess will eventually allow them to build a database of user reviews to compete with Yelp.com.

The current implementation is very basic but it has promise assuming more useful features are added. A few that come to mind are trip planning and peer recommendations. I’ve got a few more invites so let me know if you want to try it out.

Screen shots

Schmaps is an online digital travel guide that leverages the community’s efforts in aggregating data. 2 of my photos on Flickr have been included in the past for their Tucson guide

Just today I was notified that my photo of the El Rey theater in Los Angeles has also been chosen for inclusion for the LA edition. Whats interesting is that my photo of the El Rey was taken by my camera phone. Not even a nice one, my old Motorola V600 camera phone. Take a look at this photo. If you are a member of the band Magna, you might be excited to see your name in lights…