I know this comes from out of
nowhere, but I was thinking this morning about Mungo Park. Not the little-known explorer who was the main character of one of my
favorite T Coraghessan Boyle books…but the
adventure travel Web site that was created using his name. By the way…if you’re ever in search of a great
book to take along with you on a long trip…read Boyle’s Water
Music…it’s one of his best.
The site was started by the folks at Microsoft in the
early days of the Web, and it was not only one of the first online sites dedicated to exotic travel, it was a great
travel site. Featuring the words and wisdom of writers like Annie Dillard and Richard Bangs, Mungo Park was really
ahead of its time. The stories were bursting with photos, maps, other interactive elements. But like many content sites
in the pre-Google adsense era, it made no money, and so Microsoft shut it down. It was also a time of wincing at the
screech of your modem and getting rich media online was like trying to jam a cantaloupe down a garden hose. Now if you
go to the old Mungo park link, you get sent to Expedia.
I wish
they’d start it up again. In this brave now broadband world where video is flourishing everywhere, a new Mungo
Park would be hugely attractive. Would it make money? I don’t know, but I’d sure tune in. Yes, Yahoo and
Richard bangs have launched a sort of Mungo park redux, but it doesn’t yet have nearly the appeal or pizzaz of
the original Mungo park. I say to all the rich cyber-entrepreneurs out there: give us another Mungo Park!