I found some cool websites discussed over on TechCrunch. The first is a new travel site that is still in private beta called Yapta.
Another travel site? What is so special about that? You perform fare searches using the site and then bookmark fares that you find. It will track the fare and keep you informed of fare changes.
If you purchase a ticket through the site, it will continue to track the fare for you. If the fare drops, you can get a refund. I guess this is always the guess, however we never know when the fare drops so most people don’t know to request the refund. From TechCrunch, the beta users have reported the following returns:
In beta testing with 275 users over the last several months, Yapta found that 34% of purchased tickets became eligible for a refund. The average refund was 16% of the ticket price, or $85. During the beta period that worked out to a total of $28,900 in aggregate potential refunds, or about $100 per beta user.
That’s not too shabby. Once it goes public, this site is definitely one to check out.
The other site is Newsvine. It’s a news portal combined with a blog portal. You can setup your own Newsvine site (see mine at pabloa3.newsvine.com) where you can publish your own articles or seed Newsvine with articles you have read.
Also, both of these are local Seattle products.