OPEN

I’ve spend a fair bit of time over the last week looking at the major travel portals and how they work with their communities and social media format. Just two days after I finish the Guardian has helpfully re-launched their Travel section online.

It is crisply designed, easy to use and brings the community involvement right up front – there’s the link to the blog at the top, there’s the Readers Tips in the toolbar and in a prominent section just beneath the fold.

(Note to Ian Delaney – they’re selling things – but the community comes first – that’s the right way round. :-))

Jeff Jarvis, who a columnist for Media Guardian and a consultant to Guardian Media Group points out that the “purty” redesign hints at the direction the rest of the site will go in. Good news. The Guardian’s a great site but lags behind the paper version in design terms since the launch of the Berliner format a year ago.