PlanetEye adds local expert guides

I’ve been keeping an eye on Mark and company over at PlanetEye since their beta launch.  I haven’t been in a while, but I did know about the local guides plan…because I know the woman covering Vancouver (I don’t know if she is written publicly there yet, so I won’t out her).

Local guides are what, imho, is going to make PlanetEye cool.  Yeah you want to see the sights of a city.   Sure we want to know about the restaurants and places to see, but what you really want is the inside scoop.  When is the best time to get to the museum?  Where is that little hidden gem of a restaurant you’d never walk into without knowing about it?  This is the plan for the local guides:

A quick look through our website metrics is enough to conclude that our users spend about half their time in our map. We have to admit it was designed for its coolness factor and at least at first sight it is one of the most interesting features of our site. Yet, our philosophy on learning about a destination calls for deep knowledge that originates from passionate locals, so we have been working very hard to release a feature that we hope we’ll be a great research tool for travelers: the Local Expert Guide. Source: PlanetEye » Blog Archive » New in Beta: Local Expert Guides

While is sounds like a great idea, and I think it’s an great idea, the key will be making sure the local guides get enough content in there, enough hidden gems, to keep people coming back.

I’ll be dusting off my beta login to take a gander ….