04.2.12

New Release: Facebook friend map on main site, performance improvements

We just launched a small release tonight with a few notable features:

1. We added the Facebook friend map to the main site (previously it was only available in our Facebook app).  If you’ve connected your Tripline account to Facebook, you’ll now see a [Load Friend Map] button on the logged in home page.  Click on this to display a map of your Facebook and Tripline friends, including:
• Latest checkins around the globe
• Tripline maps in progress
• All Tripline maps with friends
• Where your Facebook friends live now
• Where your Facebook friends grew up
2. We changed the activity feed on the home page to load asynchronously (you know, the “Loading…” text with a spinner).  Our activity feed is getting pretty active these days, so loading asynchronously will speed up initial page load time quite a bit.
3. The mobile app now loads your past 25 maps instead of 15
4. We also fixed several other small bugs

That’s it for now.  We’re continuing to work on more features, so as always, email support@tripline.net if there’s something you’d like us to do, or if you’re having any trouble.

Byron

02.12.12

Import from Instagram, import photos from Foursquare, photo galleries and comments in the iPhone & iPad app, and more

We’re starting off 2012 by adding some great new features to Tripline.

Instagram Import

Now you can connect your Instagram account to Tripline and import your photos to automatically create maps. It’s another great way to tell your stories.

Click [Create A New Map] and

then click [Create A Map Of My Photos]

We’ll load the 20 most recent photos from your Instagram feed. You can click [+] load more at the bottom of the list to add additional photos. There’s no limit.

Only checked items will be imported. For unchecked items that don’t have location data use the search box to type in, select and add a location. If left unchecked the images will not be added the map.

You can also add Instagram photos to existing maps.  On the map page, click on the camera icon next to each waypoint and choose the Instagram tab.

Foursquare Photos

You’ve been requesting this feature for a while and we’ve been listening! This release includes the ability to include your Foursquare  pictures when you create a map from checkins.

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 iPhone/iPad App & Mobile Site

• Now you can view a gallery of your photos in your maps right on your phone!  Photo upload is still limited to the iPhone/iPad app, but photo display is available on all devices.
• You can now read and create comments on the mobile site and iPhone/iPad app. Remember, comments can be on the trip itself, or each individual waypoint.

Performance Improvements

• Improved Map Player Loading Time: We noticed map loading times were a bit slow when the maps had a lot of points and pictures. So, we did some work and now you don’t have to watch the spinning wheel for longer than a second or two.

 

Thanks a lot for being a part of Tripline.  As always, if you need help with something, please email us: support@tripline.net

 

11.11.11

Announcing our new Facebook App

We’ve just released a new Tripline Facebook App that does some pretty amazing things.  Head on over to Facebook and check it out:  http://apps.facebook.com/tripline

Your Friends On A Map

For many of us, Facebook is the main way we keep up with our friends.  More than anything else ever invented, it keeps us in touch with a wide circle of people we know and lets us participate in their lives from afar.  It’s a pretty amazing.  One of the things people are doing more these days is using Facebook to check in at their current location.  It’s a great way to let your friends know where you are and share a quick photo and a comment.  However, I often find that these checkins get lost in the News Feed view, so we decided to put them on a map. That’s the first thing you’ll see in our new Facebook App, and it’s an awesome way to see where everybody is checking in at a glance…even if it’s just at a coffee shop.

In addition, we created a map of where all of your Facebook friends live now based on their current location in their Facebook profile. It’s a fascinating perspective, especially of you’ve lost touch with people over the years.  I was surprised to find that a few of my friends who I hadn’t talked to in a while had actually moved to Los Angeles, and another few are living in Hong Kong.    It’s really fun, and useful if you’re planning a trip and want to get some good local advice from people you trust.

Finally, we made a map of where your Facebook friends grew up based on the Hometown in their Facebook profile. It’s another fascinating perspective that’s not only a great way to get to know people better, but also useful for trip planning.  For example, I never knew that 3 of my friends grew up in Brazil, but now that I do, I know who to talk to when I’m planning my next trip there.

In total, there are five new maps available on the home page of the Facebook app:

1. Checkins in the past 12 hours - displays all available Facebook and Tripline checkins in the past 12 hours (we found that is a better representation of “today” than 24 hours).  You’ll see checkins created by your friends as well as checkins that they were tagged in.  For Tripline checkins, there’s a link to the map page.  For Facebook checkins, there’s a link to the checkin page so you can comment.
2. Tripline maps in progress – displays all Tripline maps that are currently underway (except maps that are private).  It’s a great way to see which of your friends are traveling at the moment (and using Tripline) so you can keep up.  If you don’t see anything in this view, be sure to invite your friends to join Tripline using the invite link in the header.
3. All Tripline maps with friends – displays all Tripline maps where your friends are travelers (except maps that are private).  This gives you a great view of  all the places where your friends have been.  Again, if you don’t see anything in this view, be sure to invite your friends to join Tripline using the invite link in the header.
4. Where my friends live now - Displays places where your Facebook friends live now based on the Current Location attribute in their Facebook profile.
5. Where my friends grew up - Displays places where your Facebook friends live now based on the Hometown attribute in their Facebook profile.

NOTE: All of the data from Facebook is subject to privacy restrictions, so you may not see all of your friends listed if they’ve limited access to their location information. Even if you can see things in your News Feed, they may not be available to apps.  We display everything we have access to.

Installing The Tripline App

Installing the Tripline app on Facebook is a simple, three-step process that’s a bit different from most apps…but for a good reason.  Here are the differences:

1. You can see the app home page before you install it.  I always get annoyed when apps ask me to authorize them before I see what they’re all about, so we decided to let you have a look first before we prompt you for permissions.  This is also an important capability for people to be able to view publicly shared content in the app without signing up…just like the website.

2.  You need to create a Tripline account (or connect to an existing Tripline account) to use the app.  This was necessary since we already have the main Tripline website that thousands of people are using, but we also wanted you to have the option to disconnect from Facebook and still keep using the Tripline website with the same account.  So, one small step to give you that flexibility.

Here’s a link to the app:  http://apps.facebook.com/tripline

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Add Tripline To Your Favorites

Facebook has recently added a feature called “Add To Favorites” that lets you put applications you like to use in the top section of the menu on the left side of your Facebook home page.  We encourage you to add Tripline as a favorite so your map of your friends is always only a click away.  It’s a great thing to look at every day.

One you install the Tripline app, go to your Facebook home page, click the pencil next to the Tripline app icon and select “Add To Favorites”.

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You Can Do Everything In The Facebook App

One of the cool things about the Tripline Facebook App is that it’s not limited to just a subset of Tripline features.  Everything you can do on the main Tripline site, you can do in the Facebook app, and all of your previously created Tripline maps are available in the Facebook App as well…even if you created them before you installed the Facebook App.  We think that’s pretty cool, and especially now that Facebook has enabled a fluid layout that gives the app more space.

Thanks!

As always, thanks for being a fan, and we hope you enjoy what we’ve built.  If you do, please click on the “Like” button at the top of the app.  And, if you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to send an email to support@tripline.net.  We’re here to help.

- Byron

09.15.11

iPhone users, you can now add photos to your checkins!

Just today, we released a new version of the Tripline iPhone/iPad app that supports photo uploads when you check in or update a waypoint. You’ll need to update the app on your phone, so head over to the App Store and update to Tripline Version 1.2

Here’s how it works:

Pretty exciting!  We still have a lot more work to do on the mobile app, but this was a big one so we hope you enjoy it.  We also made some design updates to the main site and fixed a bunch of bugs.

As always, we’d love to hear from you, so send an email to support@tripline.net if you have any problems.

- Byron

09.2.11

New features for Facebook Fan Pages

If you manage a Facebook Fan Page (for a business, band, celebrity etc.), you can now connect your Tripline Account to your Facebook Fan Page and add a Page Tab with your Tripline maps!  Here’s what to do:

Step 1: Connect your personal Facebook account

If you haven’t already, go to Tripline and click the blue [Sign In with Facebook] button to connect your Tripline account with your Facebook account.

Step 2: Connect your Fan Page

Once you’ve connected your Facebook account to Tripline, click on [settings] in the Tripline header to go to your account profile.  In  the Facebook section on the right side, click the link that says “Connect to a Facebook Page?”.  You’ll be prompted to authorize Tripline to manage your pages.  Once you allow that, you can choose which of your pages you want to connect to.

Once you connect your page, if you’ve chosen to publish Tripline checkins to Facebook, your Tripline checkin notifications will be posted to your Fan Page instead of your personal profile.  You’ll also be able to add a Tripline tab to your Fan page (see step 3)

Step 3: Add a Tripline Maps tab to your Fan Page

Once you’ve connected your Tripline account to a Facebook Fan page, go to the Tripline App on Facebook and click “Add To My Page” in the left column.

The Tripline Maps tab on your fan page will show all of the public maps that your connected Tripline account has created or is a traveler in.

 

We’re really excited about this new set of features. Along with the recently added ability to post your Tripline checkins to Twitter, you now have  more great ways to keep your fans engaged with rich content as you move across the map.

As always, we’d love to hear from you, so please email us with your feedback: support@tripline.net

-Byron

www.tripline.net

08.12.11

Tripline on the KTLA Morning News

I had the opportunity to do an interview for the technology segment of the KTLA Morning News here in LA. Check out the video below (Tripline segment is the last 30 seconds).

07.13.11

Two cool new features on Tripline today

Hi folks. We just released two cool new features today: sign in using your email address and an embeddable place list for your maps.

Sign in with your email address

We noticed in our analytics that quite a few people were using the “I forgot my username” link when signing in, so we now allow you to log in using your email address OR your username.  It’s pretty simple: just enter the email address on your Tripline account instead of your Tripline username in the first field on the sign in form.

 

Embeddable place lists

You can now embed the list of places from any of your public maps on your blog or website.  You can choose to embed the map player as well if you want.  Just click the [Share] button on the map page and grab the Place List embed code.

A few things to note:

1. We set the default width of the Place List iframe to 600px.  This is to accomodate photo display.  You can set the width narrower if you choose, but when viewers open up photos in the list, the photos will appear cropped.  If you don’t have photos, there’s nothing to worry about.
2. The default height of the iframe is 1000px.  One of the annoying things about iframes is that there’s no reliable way to automatically determine the height, so if your list is longer than 1000px, you’ll get scroll bars.  You can always adjust the height of the iframe manually.
3. The photoviewer is anchored to the left side of the frame (as opposed to being centered). This makes the viewing experience a bit weird when you have different sized photos, but we had to do it this way to ensure the viewer was on the screen, especially if you’ve scrolled down to a place lower in the list. Not perfect, but still pretty good.

Here’s an example from the Midnight Ride of Paul Revere:

Pretty cool huh? We hope you enjoy these updates. As usual, send an email to support@tripline.net if you have any questions.

- Byron

07.6.11

Tripline maps just got a lot more social

Hi folks, we just launched a new release with a bunch of new  social features that many of you have been asking for, along with some additional updates and bug fixes. Here’s the rundown:

Add Map Followers

You can now add people to your maps as followers.  This will allow them to access your map if it’s private, and they’ll also get a notification by email when you comment on the map or check in on Tripline mobile.  To add people as followers, click on the [add people] button on the map page, enter the name of the people you want to add and designate them as followers.

This new feature allows you to keep your map private while you’re on the road but still keep close friends and family updated.  Now, when your flight lands, just check in once on Tripline mobile and all your followers will get an email right away. And, if you’ve made a change to your travel plans and want to let your followers know, just comment on the map page and they’ll be notified as well.

You can also use this feature to follow other people’s maps that you’re interested in.  Just click [follow this map] on the map page and you’ll be added as a follower.

One thing to note when you invite Facebook friends either as travelers or followers.  Because Facebook doesn’t provide the ability to send messages to friends behind the scenes (to prevent spamming), when you invite a Facebook friend to join a Tripline map, we pop a Send dialog that will allow you to message your friends directly.  Facebook only allows one friend to be pre-populated in the to: field of the message dialog, so if you’ve invited more than one person from Facebook, you’ll need to enter their names again (we pre-populate the first one).  Sorry, but there’s no way around this presently given Facebook’s API limitations.  They are planning a new messaging service soon, so perhaps this workaround will go away soon.

Waypoint Comments

You can now comment on individual waypoints in a map.  Just click the speech bubble icon to the right of the waypoint title and a comment entry field will open up.

 

Post Tripline Checkins To Facebook & Twitter

There’s a new option on your account page that you can use to enable posting of your Tripline checkins to Facebook and/or Twitter.  If you choose to post your checkins to Facebook, a notification will be posted into your Facebook feed when you check in on any map that has a visibility of “public” or “friends”.  If you enable posting of Tripline checkins to Twitter, a notification will be posted into your Twitter timeline when you check in on any map that has a visibility of “public”.  No notifications will be posted anywhere when you checkin on private maps.  To enable these options, click on [settings] in the Tripline header.

Import Facebook Checkins

You can now create a map by importing your Facebook checkins.  Once you’ve connected your Facebook account to Tripline, click on [create a map] in the header and you’ll see the option to create a map from your Facebook checkins on the right side of the page.  One note: For technical reasons we’ve limited this to your most recent 100 Facebook checkins.  We’ll open up full history as soon as possible.

Sharing Options On The Map Page

We’ve added some additional sharing options on the map page, including iframe embed code, and an option to embed a thumbnail image that links to your map page (which is a good option if your blogging platform doesn’t allow flash embeds – like free blogs hosted on wordpress.com).  There’s a new share button on the map page that you can use to access these new items.

Maps On Your Profile Page

There are now three different maps available for your profile page:

1. Places I’ve Been – shows all waypoints from your public maps + waypoints from your maps visible to friends when a friend is viewing your page + all waypoints from all of your trips when you’re viewing your own page
2. Places I’m Following – shows any place that you’re following
3. My Maps – shows all of your public maps + maps visible to friends when a friend is viewing your page + all of your maps when you’re viewing your own page

A few things to note about your profile page maps

• You may notice some waypoints displayed on the Places I’ve Been view that you’ve already removed from one of your maps.  To remove those old points, just edit each of your maps and save them. The old points will be removed.
• You can choose which map you want to display by default.  Just click on [settings] in the header and scroll down to the Profile Map option under your bio.
• If you want to see the public view of your own page, there’s a public view link underneath your stats on your profile page to see the public view.
• For the My Maps option,  the points displayed are located at the place you’ve specified as the Main Location of the map, or the calculated centerpoint of the map if your map’s main location is blank.  You can change the Main Location of the map in the editor on the map page.

Add Places Using Lat/Lng Coordinates

You can now enter lat/long coordinates in the editor to create a new waypoint.  Just select the geocoder option in the [add places] section of the editor and enter decimal coordinates in the typical lat,lng format:  37.235, -115.811111  If the geocoder finds a real-world address for those coordinates, it will be displayed.  Otherwise, it will display the entered coordinates as the place title and you can add that as a waypoint.

A few other notes

We haven’t seen too much uptake on the Question & Answer functionality we deployed a few months ago, but we decided to leave it on the site while we make some adjustments to how it works.  Stay tuned for updates.

We know a lot of you have asked for us to implement “follow roads” in the map editor.  That’s in progress and we hope to make it available for you soon.  We know it’s a much-needed feature, and we want to make sure we do it right.

We’ve also fixed a bunch of bugs, made some performance improvements and adjusted some design elements to improve the experience.   If you have any issues, you can email support@tripline.net with questions.

Enjoy!

- Byron

06.15.11

Mapping Tornados On Tripline

April, May and June of 2011 saw some of the most severe tornados in recent memory. Beginning with the F4 tornado that hit Tuscaloosa and Birmingham, Alabama on April 27, followed closely by the massively destructive tornado in Joplin, Missouri, and most recently the Springfield-Monson tornado in my home state of Massachusetts. All in all, these storms killed hundreds of people, caused catastrophic damage to thousands of homes and are likely to leave a massive impact on the affected communities for years to come.

Tripline user NewMappers created tracks for each of these storms as news reports came in, and continued to update the maps as details emerged, including matching the track with the official NOAA/NWS reports when they were made available in the weeks following the storms. It’s a great example of using Tripline to create location-based content.

In total, the maps have been viewed more than 80,000 times, with the map from the Joplin Tornado receiving more than 60,000 views. Two Tripline users also used our new Q&A feature to ask about specific areas of damage in Joplin. You can see these on the Joplin Tornado topic page. We’re very glad that this new functionality was helpful.

Lastly, while we’re happy to have more people on Tripline, given the tragic nature of these events, we decided to use the promotional space on the map page that’s usually reserved for advertising to provide highly visible links to the Red Cross donation sites. We hope we were able to generate at least some additional assistance.

If you haven’t already, please go to the American Red Cross site and make a donation. Even though the media attention has faded, the need for donations is still there, so please do what you can.

- Byron

05.17.11

Interview with travel expert Oonagh Shiel

Originally from Ireland, Oonagh Shiel is a journalist, travel expert and the most tenured member of the Cheapflights.com content team. A mother of three, Oonagh writes with first hand authority about travel trends and top destinations as well as the challenges of traveling with children. She was kind enough to answer some travel related questions we thought Tripline users might find interesting.

 

 

Q&A with Oonagh Shiel

What are the main differences you see between European travelers and American travelers?

European travelers generally have the luxury of more travel time. They also live in closer proximity to other countries and other cultures and, thanks to the European Union, can travel with minimal hassle across neighboring borders. In the US, a surprisingly large percentage of the population does not hold a passport. In a country as vast and diverse as the US, many feel there is plenty to see and do without having to clear Customs. So, traditionally, the travel profile of an European vs. an American has been rather different.

Do you see a shift in the travel habits of either region. Is either one moving in a different direction or becoming more or less alike?

Both are spreading their wings more. The last couple of years has created a breed of value-based travelers who will go further to get a better return on their money and time. In Europe, we saw an upswing in travel to the Middle East and the eastern end of Europe last year when people were looking to to get outside the pricey Eurozone. Western Europe is now seeing growing attention again as well as savvy travelers are recognizing that economic bailouts have driven down travel costs. In the US, travelers are willing to fly a little further to get more for their money. South America is an emerging destination for winter sun. Our Rising Stars Reports, which tracked emerging hot spots, also showed that people are going deeper into “exotic” countries, meaning they don’t just go to Rio de Janeiro when hitting Brazil but rather Cuiaba or Iguassu Falls. Beijing, China, is starting to be a draw but so are Shenyang and Fuzhou.

In your experience how has the global recession affected each of these travel groups?

We see people who felt the pain when their vacation was taken away or curtailed for a year or two and are more adamant than ever about travel. They tie it to points of passion.  Voluntourism is a major trend. So are trips tied to cooking classes or wine tasting or health and fitness goals. Many people are drawn to “green” destinations. They want travel with a purpose. And, as we mentioned above, they are savvy, value shoppers who will try new things or new places to get the most out of a trip.

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Recent Posts

• New Release: Facebook friend map on main site, performance improvements
• Import from Instagram, import photos from Foursquare, photo galleries and comments in the iPhone & iPad app, and more
• Announcing our new Facebook App
• iPhone users, you can now add photos to your checkins!
• New features for Facebook Fan Pages

Links

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• Contact Us
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