WebProNews

SideStep promotes itself as “the traveler’s search engine,” while TripUp is “an interactive travel community.”  And as similar as those names and descriptions are, they may soon grow even more alike; SideStep has acquired TripUp.

TripUp’s less than a year old - a “beta” tag is still prominently displayed throughout the site - so this is quite a win for its owners.  Presumably a win, anyway, as the purchase price remains unknown, but Sam Rogoway, TripUp’s CEO, sounds pleased.

“By joining the SideStep family and collaborating on new innovations, we’re poised to introduce our exciting community and social network to millions of travelers,” he stated in a press release.  In fact, according to the same release, SideStep receives over six million visitors per month.

Now, as long as we’re dealing with SideStep and TripUp, I’ll continue the pattern (in terms of names) and turn to StartUp Beat.  “TripUp came up with a number of social tools for travel enthusiasts, including Trip Gurus, which allows travelers to give and receive advice, meet up with fellow travelers, and hook up with locals,” notes one article.  “The site also includes user-generated travel blogs, photos, videos, maps and reviews.”

Judging by that description, it sounds as if both sides of this acquisition received good deals.  I’m now going to go write about something that doesn’t have two capitalized letters per word.