Yahoo! officially launches Trip Planner for travelers

Internet market giants Yahoo! have announced the official launch of their Trip Planner research tool. This service has been designed to make it easier for users to create their travel guides and itineraries on the net. Users are also encouraged to put their experiences online and share the information with other Yahoo! users.

This service is being jointly promoted by Yahoo Travel and MasterCard. The two companies have launched a Great Trip Planner Ticket Giveaway promotional campaign. MasterCard is offering two free airline tickets each day in a sweepstakes for Yahoo! users who share their experiences and display their trip plans online on this new service.

This service was originally launched under beta testing late last year and enables the users to record their journeys with photos, journals, ratings, reviews and interactive maps. The beta launch was pretty successful with thousands of users participating and becoming a part of this online community.

Jasper Malcolmson, director of Yahoo Travel spoke about this service in a press statement: “Just as other Yahoo social search products like Flickr, Yahoo Answers, del.icio.us, and MyWeb have created a platform for sharing information between users, Trip Planner is about offering a way for travelers to benefit from sharing their travel experiences.”