Dave Sifry founded Technorati, a popular online benchmarking system. His latest offering that had a public launch on 3rd November this year is Offbeat Guides, a compendium of customized travel guides with up-to-date information. This is a totally user-friendly guide for the traveler. The mechanics is absolutely deliciously fun, too. Customized is the key concept. A user enters 5 questions (name, home town, destination, travel dates, and the hotel where he will be staying). Voila! Offbeat Guides draws up a customized travel plan for the user. Sources of information come from public information such as those available on wikipedia, wikitravel, Flickr, Accuweather, and Google Maps. There may be other specialized sources, as well, such as articles from travel writers.

The total travel guide has maps, events occurring in the destination place by the time the traveler gets there, the most up-to-date exchange rates, key phrases and conversational sound bytes in the destination place’s language, list of restaurants and local tourist attractions, and a weather forecast in and around the travel dates. The site, currently in public beta, is based in San Francisco, USA.

The guide can be downloaded as a PDF file for $9.95. It can also be purchased as a full-color hard copy for $24.95, and this includes the PDF. The traveler may also view it online while on the road, if he has facilities for mobile broadband. Sifry’s inspiration is his own experience as a traveler by car who needs to consult a guide while on the road. The man of the digital age wanted the most user-friendly and useful guide book that he can hold and read. The difference with Offbeat Guides is that the traveler is most assured that what he has on print is the very latest information, not some travel guide book that was printed a few months back.

Image 1
Image 2
Image 3
Image 4

Via TechCrunch