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Imanol Iglesias is starting a social network for travel called Genviajero and has done it utilizing Google’s App Engine platform. I think this is the first site I’ve come across that is being built using the App Engine and I think it would be worth talking about a bit.

As we can see in the video of the presentation of App Engine made by Joaquin Cuenca in the Campus Party, what Google is looking for is to support those web projects that have the most possibilities for growth. If Google provides them with solutions for scalability, then we will have projects with high traffic and both Google and the project will be able to earn more money through advertising.

Here’s how Google App Engine works: the programmer, in this case Imanol, develops the application in Python (the only language available as of now) and uploads it to App Engine to have his web operational. The programmer doesn’t need to worry about databases, servers and other such issues related to the systems. App Engine also permits users to log in to the platform using their Google accounts, so users with existing accounts do not need to register on the web. As I am not a technical guy, I don’t want to go into detail in this aspect. If you want to know more, I recommend this article by Andreas Krohn.

As for Genviajero, I must say that as a social network for travellers, its basic function is sharing information on travel destinations and based on these favourites, make comments, opinions, recommendations, … Images of the sites added to the social network can be viewed on Panoramio, and soon it will allow users to upload their own pictures. On these lines, I think that in a social network like Genviajero, it makes a lot of sense to aggregate the maximum amount of information available related to places like hotels, restaurants, weather information, etc.

Wikiloc is a project that I have been following since it won the mashup competition of Google Maps Spain in 2006. After a redesign at the beginning of this year that helped it gain considerably in traffic, now comes the definitive support for this project as it becomes a part of the information layer available on Google Earth.

Jordi Ramot tells me that the increase in traffic on an international level is an important one and that the moment has arrived to give full dedication to this project. Wikiloc offers its users an application with which to manage their GPS routes and place them on Google maps.

I don’t know if Wikiloc will get the level of support from Google similar to the support received by Panoramio, but I do believe that this news is very relevant for the project, mostly for the repercussion it means on an international level.

Seen in Tecnomaps.

Ana Belen Ramon, better known as Missha in the world of web design has informed me about the launch (in the “preview release” phase) of Wolpy, a social network for travellers to share their travel experiencies.

Missha is responsible for the design of Wolpy (I love the design, congratulations Missha) and the programming has been done by Miguel Abad.

Having launched in “preview release” for now, Wolpy only allows you to create a map of the places you have visited in your trips and to carry out reviews of the places mentioned. As in all social networks that take pride in themselves, you can share these places with your friends and get to know the places that they have visited.

Once the launch phase is over, the next step would be to allow users to upload photos and videos of their trips besides being able to recommend other users on the places to visit.

The ultimate goal of Wolpy is to become a collaborative travel guide on a global scale.

The GPS devices shop ActivaGPS has just started a service called Nav2us that allows users to share geolocalized places and multimedia content through their GPS device.

Nav2us utilizes the API’s of various map services and of some mashups to offer the user a series of options that improve the experience of using a GPS navigator.

The principal functionality of Nav2us is to offer the members of the community a place to share the location of their places, something that sites like Tagzania or Wikiloc already do. And the main utility that I see is that one can download content directly from the website to a GPS connected to the computer.

Nav2us has versions in Spanish, English and French. It’s a good strategy to come out in various languages and promote the use of the site on an international level.

Read the original article in spanish.

There are more than 200 projects that we could categorize Web 2.0 in the Hispanic internet; many of them are in Loogic Rank. In this post I intend to select those projects which I think are the 30 best of the Hispanic Web 2.0 and to provide some interesting information about them.

Social Networks

Sonico
Company/Founders: Fnbox.
Investment: in negotiations.
Alexa: 511
Launch: July 2007.
More information:from the creators of Flodeo.

Tuenti
Company/Founders: Tuenti Technologies.
Investment: DAD, Bernardo Hernandez, …
Alexa: 3.293
Launch: December 2006.
More information: closed beta.

Wamba
Company/Founders: Enrique Dubois y Matías de Tezanos.
Investment: 3 million euros by Morten Lund.
Alexa: 3.425
Launch: December 2006.
More information: valuation of the company 7.5 millions euros.

Festuc
Company/Founders: Toni Salvatella y Albert Armengol.
Investment: remaining first round of finance.
Alexa: 34.189
Launch: June 2006.
More information: from the creators of Econozco.

Comparative.

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