All round web-guru Dave Sifry has just launched a new beta travel guide site called Offbeatguides.com There's more info at TechCrunch too. Unfortunately you can't see the content unless you have a special invitation code at the moment which is a bit disappointing. Soon as I have one, I'll comment in more detail.
The basic premise is personalised on-demand printed travel
guides. So you compile only the pages/chapters you want and it's printed for
you and mailed to you for 25 US dollars.
I have no doubt that the technology will work – this is the
way guidebooks will go. It's all about personalisation. And like Dave I also
think that we will still want a tangible book rather than a PDF file for a
handheld device. Something as a souvenir, something to scribble notes in… so
much nicer than a faceless file on a computer.
Where I still struggle to agree though is in the content
itself. Dave describes how he used to get really frustrated culling content
from all over the place on-line and compiling a file of stuff that he printed
out to take with him. So this technology does that job for you with a clever
search engine that he has developed. But how do you verify the accuracy of the
content in the first place? The web is full of stuff that's out of date and
inaccurate. Binding it all up in a nice book might make it feel like a proper
guide book… but is it? Can you trust it?
Dave does say that he is doing deals with 'trusted
content providers'. I wonder what impact that will have on the economics. I
can't imagine he will be able to print a personalised guide for 25 bucks if the
content has been licenced. It will be interesting to see.
4 thoughts on “Dave Sifry’s new Offbeat Guides – the future for travel publishing?”
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Hmmm. I'm always suspicious of these 'revolutionary' new online publishing ventures. (www.hg2.com is another) Rarely do they live up to the hype, and often if they do survive more than a couple of years it's because they've changed their business model to something a little more traditional (eg travelintelligence.com). I won't hold my breath!
Thanks for your comment Alistair... Hg2 also publish guidebooks you know. They were paying a lousy £3000 for a full 40,000 word guide with maps the works last time I checked. (I know the poor girl who wrote the Hg2 guide to Madrid) They offered me £1000 to write a 10,000 web-guide to Seville for them! Hilarious. (I said give me £3000 and I'll think about it) I got no response...
all that and a dead fish. what more could you want?
Hi Michael... is this comment link bait? It sure feels like it. And I'll delete in the next 24hrs unless you add more detail
Jeremy