Many people seem to think that the online travel world has ‘arrived,’ and that it’s a very crowded market.  However, I read an interesting article over at the UpTake blog today by one of that company’s founders Elliot Ng.  His reviews of the new wave in travel sites, those that are moving away from being solely booking platforms and which are now more integrative planning tools.  From what I have seen, the best of these act like a virtual guide book that you can dog ear and write in without having to carry the weight around.  I’m excited about this development in the industry, however I find myself getting frustrated frequently because many people don’t know about these options or that there are better ways to plan your travel.

For example: My friend was working on booking a hotel for a getaway in July to a nice place in San Diego.  I was looking over her shoulder and suggested several of the great booking and review platforms that I know of because of my work in the industry.  She insisted instead on spending a large amount of time trying to do everything through Travelocity.  Why?  Because the travelocity gnome is her friend on MySpace.

Yes, that’s great advertising by Travelocity, but seriously?  Seriously?  (now I sound like Grey’s Anatomy) but Seriously?  Sorry… got into a moment there.  Anyone else excited that the new season starts soon?

Back to where I was.   So in an effort to encourage others to check out new advances in travel planning, here are some great new startups and services: Nile Guide, TravelMuse, Tripit, Doppler, the Yahoo trip planner read about them and more in Elliot’s article.  

Enjoy!

PS- no one’s gotten the age right yet… keep trying!!!

Sorry… just one more… for the new season… SERIOUSLY????!

Really, I’m done now.

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Yes, there was supposed to be the inagural “Traveling Money” podcast this Saturday. No, you didn’t miss it.

What happened? My Podpress plugin was corrupted and I couldn’t make it work. I needed to re-download and re-install. Then I had to leave for the weekend because I was leading a Youth Camping trip to Anza Borego State Park (see posts to come). So it didn’t get done. You’ll have to hear it next weekend baring any unforeseen circumstances. Which will probably happen. But I’ve never done a podcast before so bear with me!!!

In other news- we’re taking suggestions for what you want to hear more of on this blog about travel and money. Let me know by contacting me at kangogirl at gmail dot com with your suggestions!

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Ok, so it’s been a bit (read: a TON) crazy in my life lately.  My apologies to all my readers for the way that Startgo.com fell off the map this month.  Thank you if you’ve hung in there with me.  Several changing focuses at work have created less time for me to focus on this blog and it’s new direction over the past weeks.

In personal things, I’ve had several computer upsets.  After the death of our computer in February, I’d been using our roommate’s computer for work and online stuff.  Needless to say, since I sped about 8-10 hours on the computer doing my job a day they quickly felt like they no longer had their own computer.  It became necessary to find a computer of our own.  And by find, I do mean find.  While the hubby is looking for a job we’re existing on my freelance & independent contracting jobs.  This leaves us at about 2K a month, which doesn’t leave any room for a new computer.

Luckily, a daughter of a friend of my mom’s surfaced with a computer she was trying to get rid of.  We were wary because the last three ‘getting rid of’ computers we’ve been given/loaned haven’t been the best.  However, things are finally seeming to be looking up for us.   Our new computer is a rescue from a closing Internet gaming/cafe and seems to be quite powerful.  Plus, it’s got a glowing blue case that makes me feel like something out of Star Trek, which is always good.

So I’m back.  Thank you for hanging around or not unsubscribing your RSS feed.   We’re set with a month’s worth of articles now (plus a few back articles including the rest of the Create Your Own Website Challenge, so make sure to read them!) and at the beginning of May I’m going to post the whole series on website creation as a free ebook.

Our new focus is, as you may or may not remember, is the finances of travel.  We’re launching our new podcast “Traveling Money” this month which is interviews and suggestions from fellow travelers who have great advice and suggestions on how to make your travel dollars.  Our first episode, due to air on iTunes on April 5th, introduces us to Theresa Backinton who shares with us how she and her husband Jeff have been able to save enough money to travel the world for a year after his PhD defense this fall.

Finally, you’ll notice that we’ve got a new page!  I’m working on compiling a list of financial resources for travelers, don’t hesitate to check them out and suggest something if you know a resource I don’t.

Sincerely,

Susan Reed

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No. Not actually. Only if you’re one of the ’special people’ will you actually be able to get free internet with your frappuchino(tm).

Starbucks announced earlier this month that in the spring (which is when? I’m guessing April?) they will be offering free wi-fi internet access at their US based stores. This had me excitedly running to the internet to confirm the rumors I’d heard from my friend’s girlfriend’s friend. I love their coffee and currently pay to have the extra $20 tacked onto my cell phone bill with Tmobile every month so that I can have access when I’m there. Which is all too often. I was only to be disappointed. What they were really announcing is that they are switching wi-fi providers from T-mobile to ATT. This will make sense for them as a company, their in-house communication systems are already run by ATT, and it will probably save this billion-dollar company some nice money. Which the stock holders will love. But I’m not a stock holder.

I use T-mobile for my cell phone provider so I get a break on the Wi-fi access at Starbucks ($20 a month instead of $40) which makes it feasible for me to purchase. One of the ‘plusses’ that put me over the top in purchasing T-Mobile for my cell phone was this very fact. In fact, many of the blog posts you read here are posted while at Starbucks. I frequently hop from one shop to another so as to switch my IP address when I’m doing something research-wise that makes Yahoo! think I’m a spam bot. This will all change. I doubt that ATT will allow me to ‘roam’ on their network, at least when I’ve tried it at The Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf cafes, which already use the former telegraph company for their wi-fi, it hasn’t worked. So unless I annie up and pay the $$ for their service, I’m stuck. Again. And since I’m in a recently renewed contract with T-mobile, I’m not about to pay to switch networks again. Besides, I like their service.

But, you say, I thought they said the internet will be free??? Yes, oh, didn’t I mention? It’s only free if you have the Starbucks Duetto credit card. Which me and my 550 credit score don’t qualify for. I’m not too hurt though, even if I did have their card I would only get 2 free hours a day. Without a card, everyone has to pay. Suck.

So I think I’m going to try and kick the Starbucks habit. We live down the street from a very nice internet cafe which, while their wireless connection is slow, they have a lovely atmosphere. Go independent coffee shops. I’m officially converted back again.

Thanks to katmere for the lovely photo.

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So when Jason over at happyscrappy wrote about being denied his beer, I began to be concerned with the sanity of the United States and our Homeland Security administration. Not that I wasn’t concerned about this venerable institution before (I mean really, hasn’t anyone read Orwell’s 1984?) but the bizzare fear of good old Czech beer was beyond my comprehension.
So as any good blogger will do, I commented on his blog. It was my first time there, having been turned onto it by the good guys over at The Daily Transit, which I read regularly. Great writing btw for anyone looking. Then, as any good blog owner is wont to do, Jason emails me a response to my comment. We got into this bizzare conversation about the phobias that TSA is imposing on poor innocent travelers. Somehow they’ve decided that we all need to be afraid of the following: full-sized shampoo bottles, shoes that lace up, non-white people, bottled water, coffee (but only when carried in cups) and now beer. As if the possibility of falling out of the sky somewhere off the coast of Los Angeles while trying to figure out how to simultaneously use my seat as a flotation device and put on an oxygen mask wasn’t enough to keep my feet on the ground.

Then he drops his ace in the hole.  Apparently while on the flight back (after making him return his beer) they announced that anyone not from the US or Western Europe was going to be FINGERPRINTED!!!

Anyone else not ok with this new action of our government?  What the bleep!  I didn’t believe him, but oh yes, here it is in a small article on CNN.

Anyone else not believing this?

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