Use TripAdvisor Facebook app or other FB travel app? Why?

January 14, 2013 10:43 AM

Hello. I'm curious about why Facebook members use the TripAdvisor Facebook app and / or other FB travel applications. Can you tell me why you use them? Apparently, the TripAdvisor app has 32 million users inside Facebook every month. But what's so good about it, that it attracts such a large user-base? Thanks for reading.
posted by Speculatist to computers & internet (10 answers total)

Isn't that the one that sponsors that "cities I've visited" map? People like to show off where they've been. I don't think the fact that it's Trip Advisor vs. anything else has anything to do with it.

Many years ago, there was a section like that for countries/US states you've been to. I used it until the day it switched over to a sponsored thing and wanted me to download a separate thing onto my page to display it. So I deleted it. I think this is just its next phase.
posted by phunniemee at 10:50 AM on January 14

People like to personalise shared social spaces. The TA app does what it says it does:

Create your travel map and show off all your adventures with more than 100 million Facebook travelers. This app may post on your behalf, including friends you endorsed, cities you wanted to go to and more.

It just makes a map of your visited destinations and destinations you want to go to, with counts.
posted by DarlingBri at 11:04 AM on January 14 [1 favorite]

Plus, by linking the two accounts, I get prioritized info from people I know when on TA
posted by Heart_on_Sleeve at 11:06 AM on January 14

It's so popular because it gives you the opportunity to do a pit of "peacocking", look at how much of a world traveler I am, the site on the other hand is actually useful, but the app on facebook is just for for showing off, Like everything else on facebook.
posted by kanemano at 11:07 AM on January 14 [3 favorites]

I think this is one of those things people mindlessly added to their Facebook wall a few years ago when such things were popular.

If this is the "cities I've visited" app, that's how I ended up with it. I don't "use" it, per se -- it's just a thing I approved one day at work when I was bored and people were fooling around with Facebook apps left and right. I think it's probably still on my account, but I haven't done anything with it in years.

I don't know about others, but I rarely go back and delete this sort of thing once I lose interest.
posted by Sara C. at 11:08 AM on January 14

It's probably some number of people who use it to connect with other people from TripAdvisor and a larger number of people who, as Sara C. says, just added it idly and haven't bothered to delete it.
posted by Sidhedevil at 11:13 AM on January 14 [1 favorite]

Oh also: I just added the map and added my travel and it was fun!
posted by DarlingBri at 11:23 AM on January 14

Nthng the "added the map 'cause it looked fun!" thing. In fact, when I mentioned to one of my friends that Facebook was telling me she recommended TripAdvisor and (worse, to her mind) her picture was showing up on the TripAdvisor site in such a way that made it appear as though she recommended a certain destination, she was quite miffed. She deleted it, but I think she is not alone in that the people who added the map when it was popular didn't realize their faces would be used for advertising half a decade later.
posted by AmandaA at 11:30 AM on January 14

I don't know about others, but I rarely go back and delete this sort of thing once I lose interest.

I do. You never know what data about you is being leaked by 3rd party FB apps. I have a very short list of approved apps.
posted by COD at 11:41 AM on January 14 [1 favorite]

I know for me, every time I visit TripAdvisor while I have an open tab running Facebook, the website prompts me to link the accounts (which requires having the app). It specifically shows me a couple of my friends who already have the TripAdvisor app and once I installed the app, if I was looking around TripAdvisor for a specific city/area, and one of my friends had been there, the site would let me know and highlight their reviews. It's sort of useful, if you like your friends' taste in traveling, but I think the main reason for the high adoption rate is fast/easy integration between the two sites.
posted by treehorn+bunny at 7:47 PM on January 14 [1 favorite]