Nextstop is a community based application for cataloging the most interesting places and events in areas around the world. Users may add recommendations, photos, and guides for others to use as reference when visiting new places. Site members can check out recommendations for restaurants, cool places to visit, lodging, and shopping. Nextstop was launched in November 1999 and is most popular in the US, India, and the UK. The site generates approximately 586,000 pageviews per month. The site was developed by former Google Product Managers as a way to find “interesting things to do in unfamiliar places”. Nextstop was acquired by Facebook in July 2010 and was shut down on September 1, 2010. By allowing members to upload and add content to guides, there is an ongoing update process that keeps content fresh and relevant. The application is easy to use. To add a recommendation, a member may simply click on the add button and search for the name of the business or site, add a picture and an up to 160 character recommendation with category and keywords. Recommendations that are part of a greater topic or theme may be collected into a guide. Creating a guide is easily accomplished through the ‘You’ link at the top of any page. All recommendations from a guide will be aggregated on a map within the guide. Open guides allow users to collaborate on a guide without an invitation to do so. A username, email, and password must be provided or, if preferred, users may sign up using a Facebook account after granting access to nextstop. No confirmation via email is necessary. Users are invited to upload a picture and complete a profile before adding content to the site. The use of nextstop is completely free. There are no fees associated with signup or site use. There are two main groups of people who would benefit from nextstop: Travelers and businesses. Travelers benefit by reading the recommendations from other tourists as well as locals before heading to a new place. Businesses can recommend their companies within the appropriate guides.

• View destinations by city, guide, or map
• Member rating system to encourage reputable posting
• Easy-to-use process for entering reviews and adding places
• Intuitive navigation system on the site
• Integrated with Facebook
• Badges for contributing content
• Forums for community discussions