Feature Alert: Search and Trip suggestions
The first major piece of functionality we built for Wanderlust Society were features that allowed users to collect and save their trip ideas. On the home page just after you sign in, we do show a feed of recent trips users have started planning. But most users’ trip planning was still largely invisible. For example, if other Society members planning a trip to Portland OR, there was no way to see their planning activity. Given one of the core concepts of Wanderlust Society is “your trip planning can help other people’s trip planning,” we’re now beginning to work on unlocking Society members ideas.
Search
While seemingly obvious, search actually didn’t make much sense to make available when we first opened up our early Beta, because there was nothing yet to search. After all, a site powered by real travelers ideas needs real travelers ideas first! The beta has been running since the late Fall and we’re now starting to see some clusters of activity that will help others plan their trips too. We thought now is a good time to turn on search. For example, a search for ideas in Portland OR, Vancouver BC and Hawaii will find over 100 ideas across categories including places to sleep, eat, drink, shop and attractions all solely entered by users of the site. It’s safe to say we’ve haven’t even scratched the surface for ideas made available by users for popular travel destinations. For example, we only have about 70 ideas for Paris France at the moment. If you have any past trips you think others in the Society might like to learn from, spin up a new Trip and add your favorite ideas from that destination and they’ll automatically be shared with the Society.
Trip Suggestions
In addition to search, we also want to take ideas from Society members right to where they’re already doing their planning — their trips. For example, if you create a new Trip on the site to begin planning a vacation to Palm Springs, you’ll now see a preview of ideas from other Society members you can explore and add to your trip.
If you’d like to see more ideas, then just click the See more ideas from the Society… link and we’ll drop you into search results where you can explore all the ideas Society members have entered for that location.
There’s much more to do of course in the realm of idea discovery. For example, search only supports searching for locations at the moment — we haven’t enabled “people search” or the ability to search for specific places yet. But those features are on the roadmap as are others to help discovery. Start playing with search and trip suggestions and let us know what you think at hello@wanderlustsociety.co. Happy planning!
If you’re new to Wanderlust Society, create a free account and install the Wanderlust Society Chrome extension today.
