Siteseeing - 9

PairUp

Every website with a few dollars to fling onto the table is talking communities and user-generated content these days. Anything more than small coins, and they commission a shiny logo with a half-shadow, throw in bevelled edges, stick a ‘beta’ below the site name, and hey, presto, Web 2.0!
This site, to give it is due, has focus. It aim—with a ™ at the end and all—is “Connecting business travellers.” Simple approach: upload contacts, share travel plans, and use the site to find people at the other end and set up meetings. You also get a heads-up when folks from your network are visiting your own stomping grounds. You have a fair amount of control over who gets to see what parts of your info, and yes, it’s free. The critical thing here, of course, is that you succeed in getting all your contacts on to the site too. Thing is, with so many prospective connectors falling over themselves to get your sign-up, is it worth the effort to go through the tedium of building your network on Yet Another Social Networking Site? Perhaps you suited folks who don’t want to be seen with the backpacker crowd would welcome the business focus? I dunno, really. I haven’t put on a tie since the last friend’s wedding. And for that, I knew the guest list. And the barman.

Published in Outlook Traveller, August 2007.

Tags: Outlook Traveller, Siteseeing, GT (It's a Guy Thing), Time Out, Mumbai, Man's World, Snapshot, In Search of the Perfect..