It's great to hear that the Where I've Been application on Facebook has been acquired by TripAdvisor.com. UPDATE: they have not been acquired.

Biggest Facebook App Acquisition Yet: TripAdvisor Acquires Where I've Been for Reported $3 Million

Just two months after asking, “I Have 250,000 Users, Now What?”, Craig Ulliott has an answer.

In what is by far the largest Facebook application acquisition to date, travel company TripAdvisor has reportedly acquired Where I’ve Been from Craig Ulliott for $3 million.

This as one of the first Facebook applications that I found useful. It's such an easy way to track places I've visited with a slick interface.

However, as Andy Beal from Marketing Pilgrim points out, it's not something one visits every day to update, so how exactly will TripAdvisor get their money's worth out of the application? Beal's theory:

... it was certainly fun to try and recall all of the places that I have visited. But then what? I don’t ever really go back to it and I don’t think I’ve ever closely reviewed the places my friends have been either.

Still, with 2.3 million users, TripAdvisor will no doubt slap its brand name on it and be happy to reach a new audience.

I think branding could play a role, but the much bigger opportunity here comes from doing something with the data users have contributed to their Where I've Been maps. Knowing where someone's been, where they've lived, and where they'd like to visit has to provide marketing opportunities beyond slapping a logo on the application.