We think Extravigator is great if you’re looking to converse with other world travelers about the best places to stay and dine at. But, we think finding your way through the most useful Extravigator conversations needs to be easy.

Sure, there’s the search box that lets you pull up any keyword. Yes, of course we have easy URLs for linking to or for bookmarking searches. And, there’s also the “Location Tags” that we systematically assign to discussions about particular destinations. The customizable RSS feeds are nice too. But, wouldn’t it be so much better if you could just point to something on a map or look something up in a directory?

Well, we’ve gone ahead and done just that. We’ve done the heavy sifting for you by going in and picking out the world’s most renowned establishments and destinations mentioned on Extravigator and jotting down the most insightful member comments (both good and bad) in our virtual Notebook.

We’ve also added contact information for each establishment so you can easily reach them directly if you’d like to book a reservation. Over time, we expect that the Notebook will become a brutally honest directory of the world’s top hotels, restaurants, spas, shops and museums. It will likely be a slow process, and one that relies heavily on your opinions and comments. But, hopefully it will also become a reference guide to the most insightful opinions expressed on the site.

And to top it off, we’ve furnished an interactive map (thanks to the Google Maps API) that will pinpoint the Notebook entries throughout the world. The map will even be downloadable into Google Earth for those who want a true birds-eye view of the best destinations and properties being discussed by our members. You’ll also be able to take the KML feed and mash it up with other websites if you like.

Members stay front and center

In our research for Extravigator, we discovered that most travel sites place their guides and advice from their editors front and center on home pages, while the forums are buried deep within the site — as if they were an afterthought.

We decided to switch it around. Extravigator places the chatter from our members front and center on the home page. Why? Because we honestly believe that everyone’s voices — as a whole — are far more worthy of being heard than our own. Thus, our Extravigator Notebook — which we use to record the most insightful comments found on the forum — is purposefully positioned secondary to these discussions.

Certainly the Notebook will take some time to evolve. But, with your help, we expect it to become a terrific resource when you want to read the most insightful and honest opinions on the most renowned places throughout the world.