Yesterday, while reading through reviews of TripTie, I came across one that pushed my buttons a bit. I have no idea who Mike Fridgen is besides what I could find on the Internet. He works for Farecast as a VP of marketing and is an advisor to TripHub. In other words, he is an entrepreneurial guy who is in the Travel 2.0 arena.

In his post titled “Social Travel Overload,” he first mentions Pete Cashmore’s review of TripTie over at Mashable, then proceeds to say that “there are too many players in this space already…doesn’t help that a new one crops up every day.” He then furthers this by saying that TripTie is without much differentiation from its competitors, and then concludes by mentioning a site called wherenext.com (a web 1.0 trip building application) - obviously meant to say that the idea of building an app for sharing trips is not a new one at all.

Of course, this is simply one man’s opinion, just like the post I’m writing right now. It is a compelling piece, and a well-written one at that. But, coming from a fellow Travel 2.0 entrepreneur, a bit oblivious. Let me explain my point-of-view.

1. He works at Farecast and advises TripHub, both new startups, and then goes on to say that there are too many social travel startups? You just helped to add two to the list! (Perhaps 1 at least, not sure if Farecast can be considered “social”)

2. He writes a blog called “Travel Startups” so from his point-of-view, the more travel startups the better, right? After all, more travel startups = more stuff for him to write about.

3. Too many players in this space? From my perspective, having plenty of players is a great thing since if you have a compelling product, it’s easier to garner an audience already segregated. Much more difficult to do if everyone is already devoted to one product, especially if it’s a social one (easier to convince one person to move than to convince a community).

4. TripTie isn’t a new idea? I admit, it probably isn’t all that new. After all, AAA has always had a trip planning interface for its agents. But it’s all about execution and I believe that TripTie is well-executed.

For me, the most compelling evidence that there is still space for TripTie to succeed is this: when I was planning my trip to Japan last November, I didn’t know where to look to find the right information. I consider myself quite Internet savvy and I couldn’t find exactly what I was looking for. If I can’t find it, there is a good chance that others won’t be able to either.

Need more evidence that there is always space? Look at Flickr. In an already crowded photo-sharing space, Flickr succeeded. It still isn’t the most popular, not even close in terms of numbers; but it has a loyal base that finds it useful and engaging. That base is differentiated from the members of other photo-sharing sites, and the people over at Yahoo (who purchased Flickr even though they have their own Photo sharing app) know this the best.

Something I’ve learned: there are never too many players, and there is always space. After all, it’s a big world out there and getting bigger by the minute (even though TripTie is trying hard to make it just a bit smaller).