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Several years ago, travel communities were a huge promise. Many websites tried to give travelers what they want – a place to share their experiences, find new travel mates, upload their photos, and a place to ask questions and get information about their planned trips. Examples for travel communities include WAYN, TripUp, TravBuddy and RealTravel.

But then came the social networks… and Facebook was the first one to actually change the way people communicate with their friends during their trip – your friends are already in Facebook, so it makes sense to upload your photos and stories to the same website. With the many travel applications written for the platform (the last count is 545), you can also share your past trips and boast in the number of countries you visited.

Now we need to ask the question – is there a room for a dedicated social-network for travelers? Some people think that the answer is no. When Kayak bought Sidestep (who acquired TripUp a while back), they decided to close down TripUp – one of the first travel-social-network sites. Now when you try to go into TripUp.com, you’ll find the following message:

Tripup is gone, sorry. Maybe you can use Facebook instead, it’s very popular.

But we need to stop and consider what a traveler’s needs really are, before we dismiss the travel communities. The first distinction to make is between a community and a social-network. A Social-Network allows you to share and stay in touch with your friends. But during a trip you usually want to meet new people – both locals and fellow travelers. You want to get travel information, the latest updates and best places to visit – you want to enjoy the whole local travel community, not just people you have already met. These things are hard to do in a social network – and certainly your regular home friends are not the ones you want to ask or meet during your trip.

Another thing to bare in mind is that travelers during their trip use the internet in a different way. Usually they use Internet-Cafes, or they bring their own laptop – but in any case most people wish to minimize their online time – they want to travel, not surf the net. If the web site is focused and can save time it might be useful for people on the go.

In short, in order for a travel community site to be successful, it needs to either focus on a niche part of the market, or provide services that are not suitable for the large social networks – travel information, companion search, local activities, things-to-do, etc. All this must be done in such a way that is appealing for people during their trip.

Written by Ron Mertens from TripTouch LTD. TripTouch (http://www.triptouch.com ) is a travel home page – bringing you travel information, services and a community – everything a traveler needs during her trip.

The real estate market has never been at such an all-time low for sellers. What with the state of the economy, foreclosures are on the rise, property values declining rapidly, and our nation facing an overall economic meltdown. Is there a positive outcome for anyone these days doing business in the real estate market? There certainly is: that of the real estate savvy investor. If you have some money to spend and don’t mind investing in a property now for a profit later-in a better real estate market and economy-the time is ripe for you to buy. The best place to find a good deal is in a list of foreclosed or soon-to-be foreclosed homes. Many people looking to buy and invest in this market with prices so low struggle with where they should begin looking for foreclosed properties. Below, we give you the best places to look for foreclosed homes.

1. Real Estate Agents- One of the best resources to begin with when looking for a list of foreclosed homes in Miami is your real estate agent. You may think that real estate agents only have interests in regularly priced or even high end homes, but in this market, foreclosed homes are giving them profit when regularly priced ones aren’t yielding hardly any results. Find a real estate agent that has a good working inventory of these types of homes-this may take some trial and error, but it will help you a great deal in your quest.

2. Internet Foreclosure Sites- Another great place to look when trying to find Miami foreclosures, is at a variety of internet foreclosure sites. Be forewarned that because the market is so ripe for people looking for foreclosures, there are a lot of knock-off or scam foreclosure list sites to be wary of. The best way to root out the bad and find the quality lists of foreclosures in Miami is just to do your research. Moreover, know ahead of time, that most foreclosure list sites will request a fee upon signup.

3. Large Bank Websites- Many of the bigwig banks out there have so many foreclosure properties in their possession that they are looking to get rid of, that they put the list up on their bank website. Find a list of the biggest bank names out there, and if they do not offer a list online-give them a call and inquire if there is a public list available.

4. Government Agencies- Government agencies such as HUD, Fannie Mae, SBA, and the Department of Treasury also have a great inventory of foreclosed homes in their possession. Sometimes, it is required that you have some sort of professional representation to gain access to this list-such as a real estate broker or agent, but government agencies offer quite a list of foreclosed properties to start with.

Real Estate Signs- Lastly, a great free and easy way to find Miami foreclosures may just be to drive around looking for real estate signs that say so. These signs will be posted in front of the homes, saying “foreclosed home”, “bank-owned, or something to this effect. Typically, you or your real estate agent will be able to call the number off the sign to gain more details.