OREANDA-NEWS. June 28, 2011. The combined Afisha/Rambler company opened a public beta version of the mir.travel Internet service and mobile iPhone and Android applications under the common name Afisha-Mir.

New pilot products help identify the best shows in any city of the world using the inputs of friends and experts. Beginning today, the registration at the mir.travel website is open to everyone. Free applications are available at App Store and Android Market.

The mir.travel website can be used to map out a customized guide around the city with descriptions, photos and maps. All you need to do is key in the name of the city or country in the search box, and Mir will come up with the ratings of local landmarks, restaurants, bars, stores and other addresses based on recommendations of your friends, other users, experts in cities and countries, and authors of Afisha guide and Afisha Mir editorial board.

You can choose the most appealing options fr om the available ones or download the entire list of places and ideas. You now have the guide that can be printed out or downloaded into your smart phone.

At the moment Afisha Mir includes over 1,500 cities and 35,000 locations. These numbers are growing fast with users adding 3,000 more addresses during private testing.

Mobile Afisha Mir applications are available offline thus saving money that could otherwise have been spent on roaming. Offline mode provides access to city maps and automatically identifies the users’ wh ereabouts. The applications go beyond providing advice and information about the local landmark and give the traveler an estimate of the time it takes to get there.

Using the application in offline mode, you can jot down notes in your travel diary, add pictures and descriptions of the places you enjoyed visiting. As soon as the smart phone finds a wi-fi connection, all of the above gets posted on the mir.travel website. The more objects were added or recommended by a user, and the higher marks he got for his recommendations, the better his chances are to get the status of an expert on the website.