Many of the reader-generated reviews of hotels, restaurants, destinations and other travel services on the Web may have started their lives as independent blogs by travel buffs. But they have consolidated into major online businesses, taking an ever-growing piece of the market from print guides.

While there’s no doubt that the resources, financial and otherwise, that come from the big corporations can help a site I can’t help but wonder if it causes the same problems that face the print guides in the end. For example, when Lonely Planet was a smaller entity they were better able to research and update their titles but now, their books have a tendency to go stale. When TripAdvisor and the others have to worry about meeting the needs of a parent entity, will the same thing happen? It’s no secret that I have an interest in social media as it relates to tourism, but I think the trend toward mega businesses is taking it too far.

I think that IgoUgo is headed down the better bath in that they require users to register and comments are often linked with user profiles. In addition to helping to reduce/eliminate the possibility of review stacking, it allows someone who reads the reviews to see if their interest is in line with the reviewer. If a 20 something person is looking at hotel reviews, it’s more likely that they’d want to read a review posted by someone in their own generation rather than someone in their grandparent’s generation.

It’s going to be interesting to watch the big two evolve, as well as: I 8 There, Hotel Shark and the other related sites. See where they all are in a year.