Earlier this week Yahoo upgraded its Travel Guides with more dynamic mapping (including satellite and hybrid maps), more community features and the addition of a “My Travel Module,” not unlike the recent introduction of “My Local” on Yahoo Local.
Here are some of the additional new features according to Yahoo:
* Pop-up icons providing quick user rating and review snippets on all listings
* Booking capabilities direct from listings
* Cool “Add to Trip” animation
* Yahoo! Answers and Trip Plans display prominently for all cities
* Photo Albums for points-of-interest and ability to upload photos
* Display of user submitted photos on cities and points-of-interest
Maps and more community content have been rolling out across Yahoo’s properties. Real Estate, for example, became more “map-centric” recently. But in my view one of the fullest expressions of Yahoo’s social media strategy is Trip Planner.
Yahoo travel properties and content are a bit of a crazy quilt right now, with video, FareChase metasearch, its main travel property, Trip Planner (which, as I mentioned, is especially valuable) and Answers. At some point Yahoo will integrate all these assets into a more coherent whole I would imagine.