This week a lot of time has been going into izunodesign.com…a site I operate that’s still in beta. Josh and I are planning some new things that will hopefully be ready by August 08, 2008, our mass post day. Plus, we’ve pretty much decided to use wordpress, but haven’t put in any time on switching over just yet. Boring stuff. I know. But here are a few things to be on the lookout for. An izunotravel.com calendar, more city buttons, better search and tagging system, and beer week.

If you haven’t used Flickr.com yet, this might entice you. They have an ‘explore‘ section of their website where users geotagged their photos, mostly pop travel destinations. It’s a very useful tool when you are showing friends where you’ve been, or finding out where to go next based on pictures. Flickr’s map looks great, the pictures are easy to navigate, good interface, overall very well done.

This is great…this is almost worth getting a dog for. Ruffwear.com, if you’re a dog owner and an outdoor guy…and 6’4″ tall…and a ninja…check this out if you haven’t already. I haven’t done much travelling with pets, but if I did, this is what I’d purchase. Ruffwear makes anything that involves dogs and outdoors. And I must add…makes it very stylishly. If that’s a word.

A couple bits of news from Nalgene. The first is that they decided to slowly halt production on their original polycarbonate bottles that they’ve been making for years due to the BPA scare. The second is that they teamed up with Brita and FilterForGood.com. Another one of those silly “green” marketing things. Attempting to reduce water bottle waste…by…purchasing…a new “reusable” water bottle. If you can’t tell, I’m just sick of corporations using the green thing to brand their products. I’ve got nothing against environmentalism.

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We’re back today from the extra long memorial day weekend to bring you GoSleepGo.com. It took me a minute to find out what exactly this site does. According to their tagline “Go Sleep Go is more than a travel guide, we’re a whole new type of adventure.” But it’s not really a much of travel guide at all, but a contest site with some travel adventures. The contest is unique however. You submit an idea to spend $1000 however you would like and then get all the supporters you can to back your idea. Whoever or whatever idea gathers the most support wins the $1000. The project winner, out of field of 63, was a mass bike ride. But my favorite was an idea for a film. The contest is over but you can still check out some of the stranger projects for a cheap laugh.

I’m not going to use this site to throw support for any candidate, but I will use it to promote Scott Hansen. I’ve been following Scott’s work on his site ISO50.com for over a year when I first saw his Svenska posters. Then about a week ago when I found out he was designing a poster for the Barack Obama Campaign, I was pretty stoked to see how it would turn out. Not disappointed. Not at all. Whether you like Obama or not, you have to admit this poster is sweet. Scott has a form I haven’t seen before, part retro, part muted, part new age digital. It works. I would guess most backpackers and travellers are Obama fans so that’s why I can justify having a post that has nothing to do with backpacking or travel.

Before you purchase a pack, if you’re like me and don’t know what you’re doing, check out GregoryPacks.com. They’ve got some good looking packs and most importantly, they have very detailed information on how to custom fit each of their packs so you can get max comfort. This pack displayed on the left is a Gregory Baltoro 70. It’s got three access points, which definitely comes in handy for backpackers and travellers. Maybe now we won’t have to spread everything out across the hostel floor.

I first heard this new site Farecast.com when they won a Webby Award (Personally I think some corporate politics where involved in that). Here’s what you need to know about Farecast. It’s an airline booking engine developed by Microsoft (that’s the first thing you notice…it also means it’s not eye candy either).

The good: Farecast is probably the first massive airline booking site where the links take you directly to the Airline’s own site (Delta, AA, Southwest etc.). Which is great because anytime you purchase through expedia, orbits, cheaptickets, etc. they will charge you a small additional fee.

Farecast also has a predictive pricing application (currently for about 30 major cities) that allows you to see if the prices are going up or down. For the few test runs I did, they all had the same “Tip: Buy” Prediction.

also like how they handled the “6 tickets left at this price.”

The bad: When I was typing in the cities, it jumped to the search results without first letting me put in my travel dates. Like it was so excited to show off the new search features it skipped important information. I did manage to get it to work eventually.

The confusing: There are plenty of advertisements from Travelocity, Cheapflights, Expedia and more booking engines on Farecast. So I don’t understand? Is Farecast trying to put their sponsors out of business? Because that’s what this booking engine will do. Somebody explain that to me.

I’m pretty convinced all guidebooks found in big box bookstores are fairly comparable. Fodor’s is one of those basic standard guidebooks. If you are a backpacker with a backpacker budget, don’t bother purchasing, as most of Fodor’s readers are family oriented…or at least have enough money to do touristy things. However, I’m not out to completely knock Fodor’s I’ve used them a bit while just looking for general information.

I was lucky I stumbled across Bernos.org. They have some suuuuuuper sweet t-shirts. Great designs, however a few are sold out. The artists, obviously inspired via Africa, tag their designs “uniquely Ethiopian.” Where else can you get that?! All this about Africa, and luckily they are located in LA. Where they print their shirts on American Apparel. In case you were wondering what I like best, the $19.99 price tag on the d’afrique shirt. Overall just great travel tees.