HotelChatter

But even if that wasn't true, people just don't share discount travel deals. There's might not even be a particularly reason good reason for it. It's just not something people, as a group, talk about much. Never comes up.

So we scoured the press release looking for some kind of explanation for this project, and this is what we found:

Say you're planning to attend a college reunion and you see that a friend on Facebook (that lives in your city) just got a killer price on a hotel near your alma mater. You're probably going to want to jump on that too. That's just an example, but it's the viral nature of travel planning. Everyone's looking to find a good deal.

See? There's your problem right there. Someone in Yapta's middle management is convinced that there is a "viral nature of travel planning," partially on the basis of the breathtaking realization that college reunions exist. Now we travel a lot and we didn't know that travel planning was viral. And we know a bunch of other people who travel a lot and they didn't know it either.

So either we've been doing this all wrong or someone in Yapta's middle management is a mindless MBA drone who thinks anything involving Twitter or Facebook is made of glitter and magic.

If only there was a way to figure out which was more likely. Hmm.

In arguably related news, since Orbitz launched their Facebook application two months ago they've garnered a grand total of 841 users. That's the social media equivalent of being in a band and having your friends show up to your gig, except only your friends show up, and then it's awkward for everybody. Hmm.