Focusing on Travel

I just realized that I have not updated the blog since last week and I left off with a rather grumpy message. I had intended to write great stories to accompany the fantastic photos I was planning to take at the Pride Parade on Sunday. Unfortunately we got all the way to BART when I pulled out my camera and realized that the battery which I had deliberately recharged all night was still sitting in the recharger... You're probably better off clicking here anyways to see some professional footage from the Chronicle. I was also planning to tell you about the free concert we were going to see in Stern Grove that afternoon, but after treating ourselves to oysters and wine at Zuni Cafe we were wiped and decided to head back to our home turf and lay out in Dolores Park with the Sunday Times.

I was hoping by now to have some clips from our groundbreaking Focus Group last Thursday, but since we weren't able to meet the Sobols in the park on Sunday, I wasn't able to get the cable to upload the footage, so you'll have to take my word for it. A big thanks to Yasmin, Brian, Seth F., Dorion, Joana and Ali for their strong opinions on how the travel planning process takes place. I know none of you would hold back from telling me what you really feel (i'll have to backtrack later so you can see the clip of Seth F. praising the Travel CV).. but I was really excited to hear that people feel there is a lack of helpful resources for travel planning on the Internet, that people rarely trust what random people are writing on travel websites and that Tripadvisor is evil. It was also good to get some usability issues on the table... I know, the site has LOTS of them, but that's what Veronica is here for -- to take OTR to the next level!

An especially big thanks to Shawn for hosting and moderating the Focus Group. This will be a new part of Shawn's offering, so if any of you are looking for similar services you can check him out here... or if you have a funny/bad date story you can add it to the collection at his other passtime, Datewreck.