Tom
21st Dec 2007, 06:57 am
The grand-daddy of travel websites is in the midst of a major re-design. One can still find instances of the old design, as at: http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/MemberSignUp-e__2F__MemberProfile__3F__c%3Dpt-j1-wcmy
But most pages seem to have the new design, as at http://www.tripadvisor.com/
The new green is 'cooler' than the old green, and one wonders if they borrowed it from David's design of this website!
It is worth reading about the history of Tripadvisor (which I find the most useful of the travel websites) at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tripadvisor. They now belong to Expedia and in my terminology: Expedia is a Web 1.0 site and Tripadvisor is a Web 3.0 site - because it has a good blend of Editorial content with User Generated Content.
It is interesting that the re-design increases the 'table' width without going fluid. I guess they want to retain graphic control of the 'table' structure of the standard pages.
Also note their policy on Multiple Domains: they only seem to have country-specific domains (and a list of Partner Sites - which presumably pay dearly for their links). Otherwise all the info goes on Tripadvisor.
I'd be interested to hear what anyone thinks about the re-design or the content/business model they operate. Have you used the site - and, if not, how do you choose where to sleep when abroad?
But most pages seem to have the new design, as at http://www.tripadvisor.com/
The new green is 'cooler' than the old green, and one wonders if they borrowed it from David's design of this website!
It is worth reading about the history of Tripadvisor (which I find the most useful of the travel websites) at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tripadvisor. They now belong to Expedia and in my terminology: Expedia is a Web 1.0 site and Tripadvisor is a Web 3.0 site - because it has a good blend of Editorial content with User Generated Content.
It is interesting that the re-design increases the 'table' width without going fluid. I guess they want to retain graphic control of the 'table' structure of the standard pages.
Also note their policy on Multiple Domains: they only seem to have country-specific domains (and a list of Partner Sites - which presumably pay dearly for their links). Otherwise all the info goes on Tripadvisor.
I'd be interested to hear what anyone thinks about the re-design or the content/business model they operate. Have you used the site - and, if not, how do you choose where to sleep when abroad?