SAN FRANCISCO | SideStep, the Internet’s leading travel search company, today announced the launch of Trips, a social travel application built on Facebook Platform, which enables companies and developers to build applications for the Facebook website. SideStep’s Trips application enables Facebook users worldwide to share their travel plans and to make new friends while traveling.

Facebook today launched Facebook Platform, a development platform that enables companies and engineers to integrate with Facebook and gain access to millions of users. More than 50 percent of Facebook users return to the site each day, providing unparalleled distribution potential for applications and the opportunity to build a business that is highly relevant to people’s lives.

SideStep’s Trips application, built from the ground up for the specific needs of the Facebook audience, simplifies the process of planning trips and sharing travel experiences. Using Trips, Facebook users can list upcoming trips as well as future travel interests, then display them on their profile page to their friends and networks. Additionally, users can search for other Facebook users with similar travel interests and discover who will be traveling or has traveled to the same destinations.

"Facebook Platform creates an ecosystem for developers to build applications that deeply integrate into Facebook and use its social graph,” said Mark Zuckerberg, founder and CEO of Facebook. “By enabling developers to make applications within Facebook, we’re working together to create a better utility for millions of people.”

Facebook is a social utility that offers an efficient way for people to stay connected with their friends and the people around them. Facebook users communicate and share information through the social graph, the network of connections and relationships between people. With more than 24 million active users, Facebook is the sixth-most trafficked website in the United States.

“Facebook is a wildly popular site with millions of people connecting each day,” said Rob Solomon, president and CEO, SideStep. “With our new Trips application, we will help connect traveling Facebook users with those who share similar travel interests, particularly those traveling to the same destination at the same time.”

About SideStep | SideStep, the Internet's leading travel search company, delivers the most comprehensive selection of travel choices at the best prices to more than five million consumers each month. SideStep has been named one of TIME Magazine's "50 Coolest Web Sites," a PC World "World Class Site" and one of its "Best Products of 2006," and declared "Best of the Web" by both Forbes and BusinessWeek Online. The company has direct relationships with the largest travel suppliers in the industry and works with a variety of leading world-class brands, providing relevant results from more than 600 airlines, 170,000 hotels and 30,000 car rental sites worldwide. The Company also operates TravelPost.com (www.travelpost.com), the Web's largest independently owned hotel review community. Headquartered in Santa Clara, California, SideStep is privately held and has raised more than $30 million in funding from Trident Capital, Norwest Venture Partners, PAR Capital, Saints Capital and Leader Ventures. For more information, visit .

Sabrina Crider
408-200-4959
SideStep