Drifting, for now at least

I'm not sure what to make of driftr.com. Is it a social network site where users can upload photos of their vacations, or a travel site where visitors can check out potential vacation spots?

Spend some time on the site and you get the feeling that its owners would like it to be the latter, but the users are making it into the former.

As a networking site, driftr.com seems to have the right idea, but with something less than ideal execution. Registered users can catalogue trips, upload photos, and write reviews and blogs to give their friends and family an overview of what their vacation was like.

But if the developers want this to be a travel site, they need to do some work. I realise the site is still in beta, but since its launch last year, it has yet to crack the 2,000 member mark. If the site ever leaves beta, it's going to need substantially more content, for starters.

The 1,782 registers members have posted over 43,000 photos from 3,500 trips (as of April 4), yet there where just more than 2,000 reviews and less than 200 blog entries. It isn't just that large areas of the world aren't covered by the user-generated content - apparently only a few driftr.com members have ever made it to Western Africa - it's that the site doesn't live up to its own hype.

Despite what it promises on its "about us" page, the site doesn't show you where to find the dinosaurs from the movie Pee Wee's Big Adventure. It just shows you pictures of the dinosaurs. I'm heartbroken about this, but a map would be helpful.

As for the site's promise to tell us the best places to stay in Cape Town, South Africa, forget it. Other than an occasional link back to the hotel's website, there was no useful information for travellers.

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