TripAdvisor.com has launched a social networking function that allows users to share recommendations on where to go and where to stay.

The Traveller Network, launched last week, requires a brief registration process, during which you can give as little away or as much away (profile picture, perfect holidays and travel companions), as you wish.

Once registered you can list the places you have been to, and those you are planning to visit. The site includes major cities and tourist destinations, but for some places you will have to compromise with a region, rather than a precise location. If you register on the .co.uk website, your destinations will appear as an uninspiring list, but register on the .com site and you’ll get a natty map. The same mapping function is also available on the social networking site Facebook, unimaginatively named “Cities I’ve been to”.

Once you’ve registered you can send an invitation to register to your friends, either by manually entering their email addresses or selecting their emails from your account address book. Like Facebook, the idea is that you share your tips only with your friends and family, the thinking behind that being that you trust their recommendations more than those from a stranger.

In fact users already registered with Facebook may prefer to use the TripAdvisor tool from their Facebook account, because they have a pre-existing friends network, whereas TripAdvisor is still in its infancy.

Having said that, the pace of change at TripAdvisor is impressive. The site passed the 10 million mark for user generated hotel reviews last week, up from five million reviews this time last year (it took four years to accumulate the first one million). If Traveller Network grows at the same rate, it could challenge the leading user generated content travel sites such as WAYN, Travel Blogs and TripUp.

We love: recommendations should be more reliable than other network sites because they come from people you know; the map function on .co.uk and Facebook is a great visual tool; you can access TripAdvisor’s 10 million hotel reviews while planning a trip.

We hate: the months we’ll have to wait for the map on .co.uk; Tripadvisor has not linked its Facebook tool with Traveller Network, so you have to enter destinations separately into each website if you want to set up networks on both.

Verdict

Design: 7/10

Navigation: 7/10

Content: 8/10

Fulfilment: 8/10

Overall score: 30/40

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