The couch tour is on!

February 2, 2004 9:42 AM

I love websites and communities that wouldn't exist if it wasn't for the internet. Couch Surfing is just about the most useful site in the world for a wandering college student. You can quickly see what countries offer a couch, there are profiles for each participant with past testimonials and friends lists, and you can even map your travels and where you want to go.
posted by mathowie (9 comments total)

[This is AWESOME.]
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 10:23 AM on February 2, 2004

I feel like some of these couch surfers might be sending mixed messages.
posted by majcher at 10:33 AM on February 2, 2004

wow, I have wanted to design a site like this forEVER. I am so happy it exists.... signing up now....
posted by jessamyn at 11:17 AM on February 2, 2004

now *this* is what social networking is for. awesome, awesome, awesome.

thanks, Matt!
posted by mrgrimm at 11:22 AM on February 2, 2004

Heh. Favorite quotes from majcher 1st. link: "I enjoy all the physical stuff. I do mean ALL!!"; 2nd link: "I have an female roommate,2 cats, and a .22 with a great aim."

And boy, doesn't Angelina Jolie have better things to do then house couch-crashers?
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 11:26 AM on February 2, 2004

Saw this linked on tribe.net a while ago and, like jessamyn, thought: ooh, somebody FINALLY did it! cool!
posted by arielmeadow at 11:32 AM on February 2, 2004

I've actually been developing something similar to this, only using flash instead. Of course, the application is different (travel/trip based) and I'm still a long way off from having the site "operational", but you can check it out if you're interested here. An example of the map functions can be seen here.

Please be gentle on that good bandwidth.
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 12:28 PM on February 2, 2004

A lurker would like to see mention of http://www.globalfreeloaders.com/ which is, in his words, "AFAIK, the first free accom trading place - and it remains free".
posted by mr_crash_davis at 2:56 PM on February 2, 2004

Yeah what a good idea... spend the night at a stranger's house who you met over the internet.
posted by Recockulous at 3:29 PM on February 3, 2004