“We’re trying to approach travel guides from an algorithmic, Google-like perspective,” Triposo co-founder and COO Richard Osinga tells Wired. Triposo uses what it calls an “opinion mining” algorithm. The company analyzes the natural language used in online reviews to determine whether people who have posted about a particular place liked it, and what exactly they liked about it. This helps the app suggest places for very specific qualities — like a restaurant that has spectacular Bolognese, or a hotel that is especially clean.
It also uses the time of day, your GPS location, and local weather to suggest things to see and do while you’re traveling. That, paired with analysis of the behaviors and opinions of other users, lets Triposo figure out what activities people are most likely to be interested in at a certain time — you’re probably not looking for a history museum at 2am in in Paris — and how far they are willing to travel to do that. This means you can nix all the planning you’d normally stress about before a vacation, and be confident that you’ll find unique, interesting attractions no matter what part of town you’re wandering around.