Online travel and review sites are getting more and more social and data-driven, and Zagat is no exception. The restaurant review site is re-launching, now offering users more free content with a social overhaul. The new social tools include interactive maps, which enable users to search restraints by clicking or draw areas on a map, and stats, to help hasten the decision-making process. Moreover, users will be credited for the featured quoted extracted from their reviews, and a new badge system rewards members for good reviews, alongside a new photo sharing feature.  Zagat’s site re-launch comes days after the debut of an Android app.

The new features usher in some interesting ways Zagat is using its accessible data markets to improve the usability and appeal of its site.  The stats feature contextualizes the aggregated activity that’s taken place around a given venue, boiling down its relative position in the grand scheme of things. Using data to provide added nuggets of info can help users make a decision, which is a concept Bizzy’s using in its local search tool.

Big data is also finding importance with Zagat’s goals around building users’ personal cloud, encouraging photo uploads and sharing.  “With the updated site, Zagat is encouraging users to build up restaurant profiles with photos. Members can now upload photos of dishes and restaurants and view photos submitted by others.”  The tactic is being employed by a number of mobile oriented social tools lately, Foursquare and Instagram validating the trend in two disting ways.

A restaurant “like” button was also added, and Zagat now features 3^rd party reviews and rankings.  Zagat was already social before the relaunch, but it now took on a much more open form. This makeover will now enable the company to better leverage social data from 3^{rd party} networks and aggregated activity, as well as attract more users with a bigger quantity of free content and social impression.

Zagat is pushing to stay relevant as Yelp and other competitors gain ground, but new content networks like Yahoo (trying on its latest business model) are also working hard in the European front. The internet company today re-launched Yahoo! Travel in the UK, and the new design s expected to hit France, Germany, Spain and Italy within the next 6 months. The all new Yahoo Travel features content from Lonely Planet, social content sharing and rating options and more.

Tnooz reports “the site is also trying to get more social, allowing users to add trip ideas and photos (via Yahoo-owned Flickr) into the trip planning part of the new site.”  In addition to Zagat and Yahoo, making upgrades recently, there’s Stay’s latest changes. The site recently added the ‘Add your Own’ guide, review and activity sharing feature. Shortly before that, Nileguide acquired travel recommendation site 10Best.com.

The promise of social integration is a necessary but easily leveraged way to improve content and engagement on a travel site, in turn offering features to end users that are useful to their multitude of web needs.  This can’t be done without efficient means of managing big data, and analyzing it, a specialty that social media services are honing right now.  As big data applies itself to the travel industry, we see the importance of owning and monetizing big data.  It’s certainly a point of contention for Google, as it defends its acquisition intent for flight information database ITA.