Travel Search Engine Gets $10.2M (www.tazzoo.com--to be renamed)

Travel Meta Search plans to cater to fragmented online travel sector in Europe and Asia.
August 30, 2006

Search engine Travel Meta Search, which hopes to fill a void in the fragmented online travel sector in Europe and Asia, said in an interview it has raised €8 million ($10.2 million) and expects to launch a consumer travel site this fall.

 

In an exclusive interview with Red Herring, the site, whose name will be revealed in October, will search airfares, hotels, car rentals, and vacation packages from both mainstream and discount airline sites. The search engine was formed by the merger of Singapore's Fare.net and France's Coelis.

 

Paris-based Sofinnova Partners invested €5.5 million in Travel Meta, and Walden International, headquartered in San Francisco , invested €2.5 million. "Search tools to help Internet users get good deals are an exciting opportunity," said Sofinnova General Partner Olivier Protard.

 

Travel Meta's robust search technology may set it apart from competitors. Jerome Thil, the company's chief technology officer, said his company can "scrape" data from millions of web pages, whereas most travel sites can cull information from hundreds or thousands of pages.

 

Travel Meta is based in Singapore, and headed by Fare.net founder Pascal Bordat, a French engineer with a master's degree from Stanford University. Prior to Fare.net , Mr. Bordat had been COO of Travelprice.com. He also spent a decade at Amadeus, a global travel booking system created by Air France, Lufthansa, Iberia, and SAS. Coelis, which merged with Fare.net last month, is a Strasbourg-based company that operates French travel site Tazzoo.

 

Mr. Protard said Travel Meta is filling a relatively untapped niche in international travel search. Although U.S. competitor Mobissimo has begun setting up operations in the United Kingdom and India, other U.S. companies, such as Sidestep and Kayak, have not yet entered the European and Asian travel markets.

 

"In Europe there are a lot of low-cost carriers, and Asia is flooded with them," said Brian Smith, an independent search engine analyst in Silicon Valley. "So they [Travel Meta] are going after a very disorganized space where there are so many opportunities."

 

Mr. Smith cautioned, however, that online travel aggregation isn't an easy business—companies like Kayak are getting just 4 million hits a month and have spent millions on ad campaigns to lure consumers. Travel Meta, he says, likely will face similar problems in establishing its brand.

 

 

RELATED to Jerome Thil : http://www.comparisonengines.com/?p=110

 

Travel Comparison Engines - SideStep's Phil Carpenter

Posted by Brian Smith at August 24th, 2005

Ok, I'm almost through Hard Landing. What a great crash course on the Airline industry…deregulation, pricing, fare wars, labor costs/unions, reservation systems, and more. I highly recommend the book ( SideStep makes it required reading for all new employees).

There's so much to cover within shopping comparison engines that I've been reticent to jump into coverage of travel comparison engines (or travel search as some people like to say). I spoke with SideStep and Mobissimo early on, but did not really follow up. However, I think there are a lot of synergies between shopping search and travel search which makes coverage important. And just as with shopping comparison engines, no one is really concentrating on travel comparison engines like SideStep, Kayak, FareChase, and Mobissimo which are clearly changing the way people shop for travel services.

I sat down with Phil Carpenter, SideStep's VP of Corporate Marketing, while at Search Engine Strategies …

A little background…
"There are a number of Global Distribution Systems (GDS) or reservation systems: Sabre (used by Travelocity), Galileo/Apollo, Worldspan (used by Expedia), Amadeus (Europe), and Abacus (Asia). These systems are expensive for travel providers to sell through as there are associated booking and query fees."

"When the world wide web came along, travel suppliers were slower at developing consumer friendly websites. But in the end, they want consumers to come directly to them. That's why SideStep works well; after the first sale through SideStep, that user might go to that channel directly." [Editor's Note: Expedia, Travelocity, and Orbitz are online travel agents (OTAs). These companies take your reservation and even hold inventory – seats, rooms, etc. SideStep, Kayak, and the other travel comparison engines send you to the source to book your reservation.]

"The travel search engine model is strategically aligned with how travel providers want to go. This is especially true for hotels. However, from late 2001 through 2003, 9/11 and the SARS epidemic hit and the hoteliers got desperate. They were willing to give away the store to companies like Expedia. They just wanted to fill rooms."

"Fast forward a couple years [past 9/11 and SARS] and the hotels are not having the same issues and their own websites have become a lot better. They go back to the Expedia and say that the original deal doesn't work anymore. They want to restructure the arrangement and pay less. In some cases they 'come to blows' and in one case, a major hotel chain, InterContinental Hotels Group, walked away from Expedia. If you're looking for a Holiday Inn (an InterContinental property) on Expedia, you're not going to find it. This is in contrast to SideStep which maintains a great relationship with InterContinental because we send people directly to the InterContinental website. Hotels want the direct interaction and brand dialogue with the customer. Jet Blue is another example. They want to share the trueBlue experience directly with the traveler."

So how does SideStep work…
"Just as travel marketers are spending money through Google Adwords, we are of a similar nature. However, we are more interesting to marketers because we provide a qualified, focused audience; people are coming specifically to look for travel." [This should sound familiar to readers of my shopping comparison engine posts. Think Vertical Search!]

"Sidestep works on a CPC, CPM, and a CPA basis. Who are we to go to a multi-million dollar company and say this is how things work? In the end, it all backs out to the same number, so anyway [the travel providers] want to work, we're going to do it. Besides the search results, we also have an e-mail newsletter which delivers great returns for advertisers. Additionally, the SideStep website has a deals area and we offer a toolbar which people particular like because we're shifting bookings away from expensive channels."

On the old guard…
"The OTAs are the established, old school players. Just as people are turning to Shopping.com instead of Amazon.com , this is a new way in which people will shop for travel."

"Some of the established OTAs haven't gotten on board, but Orbitz has. Orbitz has a different mindset; they come from the travel supplier world [as the Orbitz website states: Five airlines - American, Continental, Delta, Northwest and United - came together to fulfill a mission: Develop a travel website that would serve people better. Orbitz was designed for you - to make your travel planning experience easier and more affordable.] They are feisty, aggressive, and resourceful, with a competitive spirit. They are technically savvy. They understand new tech as opposed to Travelocity which means Sabre, which means old tech."

"The DNA of [the other OTAs] is really different. We're much more akin to an Orbitz or a Google. Sidestep is a technology company. Our roots are in technology, the founders are technologists. Which is perhaps why we're successful; there's a fundamentally better way to do it [buy travel]. We've been diligently working on our technology for the last 5 years."

One reason Travelocity and Expedia say they won't work with you is because your queries will cost them millions of dollars…
"We have a dynamic directory. For a particular search, we're going to search these sources and only these sources, we're not going to search unnecessarily. If an airline serves a certain area seasonally, for example ski towns during parts of the year, we have our own technology that helps us look at just this information. We're very picky in terms of where we look and what we look for. Any of the travel suppliers which we query – Hotels.com, InterContinental, JetBlue - would back this up."

What about international expansion…
"Yes, there's a great opportunity internationally. We already search a lot of low cost airlines in Europe. We're already doing a decent amount of volume there as roughly 1/3 of our flight searches involve foreign destinations or arrivals. One reason we do a good job is because our model works better; we search OTAs, consolidators, and travel suppliers themselves. Use our toolbar and do a search on Expedia for a trip to Paris." [Editors Note: On the one search I did (LGA –>CDG, leaving 9/13 and returning 9/18), Expedia's best price was $673 while SideStep's best price was $599 and included 5 additional options under $673. SideStep saved me $74.].

"In Europe, there are a bunch of little guys. The only real player is Kelkoo. We have not announced any international expansion plans as there's room to grow in the US. One thing that we've been careful about is to not spread ourselves too thinly. We've chosen to get deeper into the categories we provide. [The company launched vacation package search in June.] International expansion talks always come up, but we've maintained our focus."

Are you going to be the travel engine for many sites out there? How are you marketing?
We have done some co-branded partnerships. Knight Ridder Digital is one example. We have the capability, and we're open to those types of opportunities."

"We do a lot of search engine marketing (SEM) such as pay-per-click (PPC) and search engine optimization (SEO). We do a lot of PR and promotions. We talk to the consumer and industry publications. Word of mouth is also big. Our approach is more akin to Google than Expedia; we're not going to buy ads on blimps. We're going to build a great service and deliver something so good that friends will tell friends, colleagues, etc."

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 24th, 2005 at 3:34 pm. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

12 Responses to "Travel Comparison Engines - SideStep's Phil Carpenter"

Jerome Thil says:
August 26th, 2005 at 6:31 am

Hi,

Just to say that Kelkoo is not the only player in Europe (even if it is the most important one).
We have developped a new travel shopbot technology called TaZzoo in France.
It is already used on France Telecom Wanadoo and Voila portals :
http://voyages.wanadoo.fr.

We are users of SideStep from the begining and we are very impressed about their work. I agree with Phil when he explain the importance of technology in travel search. Being able to do real time search is a challenge for the future.

Best regards,

Jerome

COELIS - FRANCE

Jerome Thil says:
August 26th, 2005 at 6:32 am

Oops… the adress is http://www.tazzoo.com

thanks

Aaron says:
August 26th, 2005 at 12:35 pm

I heard a moderator at TravelCom in NYC this year say: Meta Search Engines are the answer to a question no one asked. This was during a panel discussion on Meta Search in which Sidestep's then-current CEO was a part.

The engines definitely face an uphill battle; travel seems to resist change in technology at every step.

Nawar Alsaadi says:
August 28th, 2005 at 4:27 am

The Meta-Ad search!

In the last several years, the online travel market has witnessed the birth of the meta-search travel website, which in essence a search engine that fetches rates from thousands of suppliers and third party websites and display them all in one place, hence making travel comparison much faster and easier.

The premise behind meta-search engines such as Kayak, Mobissimo, Sidestep and Farechase is interesting; the goal of simplifying and speeding up the online travel shopping process is a worthy goal and it does serve an existing need in a highly fragmented industry.

Today airlines and hotel shoppers must search multiple sites to find the best airline and hotel deal, not to mention studies has shown that supplier do not practice price consistency across various distribution channels, hence making it more imperative for the client to shop and compare before making an online purchase.

However, while the underlying foundation behind meta-search is legitimate, the method applied today is not, let me explain:

For a search business or a search website to be viable, the search results must have a neutral results component, the most well known search site of all: Google, has thrived due to the accuracy and comprehensiveness of its natural listings, results that continue to evolve and change as new sites get created and Google improve upon their search code.

Meta-search travel websites on the other hand, lack a key component in making them a viable travel search destination, which is the lack of neutral listings, all the results shown in the meta-search companies websites today are sponsored and paid for results.

Many of those sites mention that they offer the ability to compare hundreds or even thousands of supplier and travel websites, however in reality they offer a comparison tool among hundreds or thousands advertisers; users are in no way getting a fair, clear or comprehensive comparison among all suppliers and third party websites, in reality users are being tricked into thinking that they are seeing the full picture, but they are not.

Another way to look at travel meta-search today is to think of a Google like website where ALL the results shown are Adwords sponsored results; in fact a company like this existed once and it was called Goto.com, the company failed miserably as a search engine, but succeeded eventually as a pay per click provider, working with other search engines that do offer neutral search results, this company is known today as Overture.

Unless the meta-search websites will offer comprehensive, neutral and none-sponsored results in their listings, they will never evolve into major travel portals or destinations; at best they will become another tool to compare against and not to compare from.

Nawar Alsaadi, Founder of Global Hotel Discount (www.globalhoteldiscount.com)

Frosti Sigurjonsson says:
August 28th, 2005 at 1:41 pm

Hi, I am the founder of http://www.dohop.com - a travel search engine.

dohop may be tiny still - but its strong! It is the only search engine that can find flight connections with European low-cost airlines, and it does this in less than 2 seconds. More to come this fall!

I do hope Nawar reads this because dohop welcomes all vendors even if they don't advertise. Ranking of search results is not biased by sponsorships.

Its exciting to be part of this new industry. Travel search engines are just starting out and the public seems to be somewhat confused about what they are. Are they travel agents ? Why don't they book this flight for me?

People also seem to mistake the likes of Expedia for "travel search engines". No doubt, this because these Travel Agents offer good search functionality for their catalogue.

The term "meta search engine" is sometimes used for the likes of Sidestep. This is not so good because elsewhere this specifically means "search engines that search other search engines". One example would be www.dogpile.com. Perhaps somebody will one day start a meta travel search engine that searches sidestep, kayak, dohop. What will he be called then?

Lets be clear about it: Sidestep, Kayak, Mobissimo, dohop, Allcheckin and the like are nothing but TRAVEL SEARCH ENGINES.

I would also like to suggest that we start using the term Travel Search Engine Marketing (TSEM). TSEM is growing fast and going to be big. By 2008 turning over more than $1.5bn so it probably merits an acronym.

Frosti Sigurjonsson
founder
dohop.com

Jerome Thil says:
August 29th, 2005 at 1:53 am

Nawar,
In a sense you are right, but there is a technical point that is relevant. The fact that the meta-search websites are paid by the suppliers does not mean that they are not neutral. I agree with Frosti.
Travel meta-engines are limited because it is very difficult to grab prices in real time on travel websites. This is not a Google like approach. You need a strong technology to grab information in real time on websites. If you don't have this technology, you need to build relationships with the travel websites and you become dependant to a limited list of actors. The funny challenge is : being able to set up travel metasearch tools which can grab prices in real time on an unlimited list of websites, including the airline companies websites (… kind regards to the GDSs)…
Try www.tazzoo.com.

Jerome thil
founder
coelis.com
tazzoo.com

Marlene says:
September 23rd, 2005 at 12:36 pm

Hello - Price comparison for distriubution is questionable - can be argued either way. What Im interested in exploring is your distinction between "old vs. new" tecnology - "They understand new tech as opposed to Travelocity which means Sabre, which means old tech" - both means are seamless (live). Please elaborate on new vs. old.

Thanks, Marlene

Alan Sorenson says:
December 4th, 2005 at 10:12 pm

The problem that travelers who use travel search engines have, is that they don't know which sites have biased search results and which don't. Since many of the sites get advertising revenue and referral fees from airlines and hotels, it's appropriate for travel shoppers to at least be suspicious. This has also been the case with the systems that travel agencies use. From what a travel agent friend of mine told me, it's long been the case that the order of travel options that agents see on their systems may be biased by the fees that the airlines and hotels pay Sabre, Galileo and the other global distribution systems. Why would it be much different in the travel search engine world?

By the way, one travel search engine that may actually be neutral is mySmartTrip from Enable Solutions - www.enablesolutions.com. They offer their software to companies and individual business travelers for a monthly fee and don't accept any advertising.

VerticalSearch.net » Blog Archive » Past Posts about Mobissimo, Kayak, and SideStep says:
February 17th, 2006 at 3:32 pm

[…] #038; Travelocity? - June 7, 2005 One of Mobissimo's co-Founders Moves On - June 7, 2005 Travel Comparison Engines - SideStep's Phil Carpenter - August 24, 2005 Kayak - Interview with Steve Ha […]

VerticalSearch.net » Blog Archive » SimplyHired Job Search says:
March 22nd, 2006 at 5:17 pm

[…] til 3/2005. There's a 5 year delta between travel search and job search. Related Posts: Travel Search Engines - Phil Carpenter - August 2 […]

Paul says:
May 11th, 2006 at 11:48 am

Orbedia.com - It's Orbitz and Expedia combined with a number of other partners to provide a comprehensive search and tailored results for users. What sets Orbedia apart from sites like Kayak, Sidestep and others is that users are directed to partner sites with results displayed. So you only have to input your search parameters once. This also guarantees that the rate you are looking at, is what you will pay. Finally, Orbedia allows users to explore and gather more data about the destination they are visiting, by viewing user comments on individual sites. We invite you to try Orbedia.com for your future travel needs.

Your comments and feedback are appreciated.

Paul says:
May 11th, 2006 at 11:49 am

Just wanted to add that the site is www.orbedia.com

Traveler ID

Interactive Travel Group announced an expansion of its controlled beta launch of Traveler ID, a new, web-based service that enables travelers to receive personalized service no matter where they book their travel. The company will open up Traveler ID to an additional 25,000 travelers. The service has been in private beta since early May.

"We've just added some great new features travelers are going to love," said a company spokesperson. "We're excited to invite more travelers to use our service and begin simplifying their travel experience."

Traveler ID's professional, easy-to-use website allows travelers to create comprehensive travel profiles, including air, hotel, car rental and vacation preferences - in less than three minutes - and provides each user with a unique identification number, a Traveler ID. The users themselves decide how much information they feel comfortable sharing.

Thereafter, whenever a user books travel at a travel website within the Traveler ID network, the user simply provides his or her Traveler ID number and passcode, and the user's travel profile and preferences are instantly transmitted to the website, speeding up the booking process. The user is in full control over when and with whom the user's profile is shared.

Traveler ID is completely free for travelers and charges travel websites a nominal fee for access to travelers' profiles.

"We're just about ready to open up to the general public," said a company spokesperson. "We expect to go live for all travelers by the end of the year. Users who don't make it into the beta program at this time will be invited to create an account before we open to everyone else."

Related Link: Traveler ID

Here's a $14 Billion Print Business That's Loving the Digital Revolution

Yellow Pages' Web-Based References Jump 20%; Book Form Still Relevant

By Abbey Klaassen

Published: August 28, 2006

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- As major media companies fret about how to keep the internet from cannibalizing their core business models, one print-based industry is finding traditional plus digital equals a whole greater than the sum of its parts.

For Yellow Pages, print and web aren't mutually exclusive, but complementary.

Yellow Pages Association, the nonprofit trade group for the industry, conducted its annual usage survey and found references to the print books were down 100 million from last year (most surprising, that represents a decline of only 0.5%). But online references were up 300 million, or 20%.

Why print still works
"A lot of people would have predicted the death of this business a long time ago," said Neal Polachek, senior VP-research and consulting at Kelsey Group. "But what you can't do online yet is quickly and easily compare one plumber to another and make a couple calls. And that's the beauty of the book today."

It also perhaps points to the limitations of search and why, despite its promise, local-search ad spending is expected to reach $6 billion by 2010, while the yellow-pages industry is already a $14 billion business.

According to the YPA's usage study, the print and internet yellow pages aren't mutually exclusive, but complementary. In an average week, 49% of all U.S. adults refer to the print yellow pages and 6% refer to the internet yellow pages. In the course of a year, those numbers rise to 89% and 20%, respectively.

"We're not seeing any real product substitution going on," said Neg Norton, president of the YPA. "For our users, what they use depends on where they might be at the moment -- at work they're more inclined to use internet, at home they're more inclined to use paper."

Delicate balance
It's a delicate balance that the yellow-pages industry strikes with the internet, though, especially when companies like Google and Yahoo are both competitors and partners -- "our competition," Mr. Norton said.

Yellowpages.com, for example, distributes listings within a network that includes Google, Yahoo Local, Switchboard and AOL. The network is flexible, and yellowpages.com essentially acts as a reseller of that space.

"We recognize there are other players on the web, and although [yellowpages.com] is sizeable, all traffic doesn't come to yellowpages.com," said Matt Crowley, VP-marketing at yellowpages.com, a joint venture of AT&T and BellSouth. "The more we can provide access to others on the web the better for our clients."

Ultimately, the yellow-pages industry's deeply experienced and entrenched local sales team -- one that covers a lot of geographic ground and understands the needs of local businesses -- is one of its biggest assets and will likely remain unique to it, despite whatever number of new positions Google fills each week.

High-margin business
But like all traditional media, the yellow pages must also adapt. Right now it's a high-margin business -- on average running about 50% -- but it won't be that way forever, warns Mr. Polachek, who said there's an opportunity waiting to be tapped that would marry yellow-pages listings, opinion and user reviews, Angie's List-type reports and editorial content that might be in a newspaper.

Yellowpages.com has publicly surmised it may have a role to play in IPTV, a technology AT&T is using to deploy its nascent video service. Other applications for yellow-pages players might include in-car navigational systems.

In the meantime, internet yellow pages have been working to make their sites stickier and add features to give the online product the convenience of print. Yellowpages.com is offering click-to-see print ads and has added personalization tools that let users bookmark searches and make notes alongside listings, along with click-to-play audio ads. It's also contracting with MSN to use its virtual earth platform.

"We realize our core asset is our site, our brand," Mr. Crowley said.

Read More About: Mapping

Social Atlas Sites Let You Map Your Life

New sites let you share memories, info with friends, family, or the entire internet.

Dennis O'Reilly

Friday, August 25, 2006 04:00 PM PDT

No plain-vanilla mapping site knows your favorite haunts as well as you do. New online services tap that information by enabling you to share your knowledge and memories of your most beloved locales--in your hometown or on the other side of the globe--with the rest of the world. I looked at five of these services: Flagr, 43 Places, Platial, Plazes, and Wayfaring.

Built on conventional mapping data from services such as Google Maps, these sites let you add digital pushpins that link to personal descriptions of the locations. While any visitor can peruse the contributions of others on these sites, typically you must register in order to add content. But don't worry about having to provide credit card info: All five sites are free, requiring only that you submit a valid e\0x2011mail address. (Note, however, that Plazes is still in beta form, and that 43 Places may eventually charge a fee.)

Looking for New York City's best street art? Want to follow the virtual footsteps of Jack Bauer, protagonist of the TV show 24? Wayfaring Media's Wayfaring has directions for both. Users can also post comments on other users' maps.

Though most contributors offer a lighthearted look at their locations, some at Platial tell dark tales, such as those tied to locations of recent shark attacks. The site, which calls itself "The People's Atlas," recently added a feature that links its maps to RSS feeds, so you can receive alerts about new annotations for places that interest you, or by other users whom you specify--giving the site a timeliness that the others I looked at lacked. Several of the sites I visited allow you to add images to your text posts, but Platial is the only one that supports video uploads.

Traveler Wish Lists

Anyone who has ever used Yahoo's popular Flickr photo-sharing service recognizes how tags work: Users assign keywords to categorize images. The same approach is taken by the Robot Co-op's 43 Places, which--despite its name--has descriptions of thousands of locales around the world. Along with the usual place names, you'll find tags such as "Hogwarts" and "Pirates of the Caribbean," illustrating that travel is sometimes a state of mind. The site even posts user-assigned "wanderlust ratings" for each mapped location, though it's difficult to find any spot with a rating under 80 percent (100 percent is the highest possible mark).

Plazes ties user-supplied data to network router locations (called Plazes), as automatically identified by free, downloadable desktop software that also lets people (all users or, at your discretion, invited friends) see where you are. You can use the service without the downloaded app to find other Plazes and users--but unless you use the software, you can't add a Plaze to the service's database, and others won't be able to see your precise location.

The least developed of the five services is Flagr, self-described as a "Sharewhere" site. It has relatively few annotated locations, and the descriptions I checked lacked detail. Flagr demonstrates that, like all sites that rely on community-created content, personal-mapping services depend on attracting a critical mass of participants.

Privacy Issues

One key caveat: These and other personal-mapping sites have built-in privacy risks. Though all five of the services I tested offer some ability to control who can see your data, you are entrusting personal information to a Web server. In general, it's a bad idea to post any data you wouldn't feel comfortable writing on a postcard sent via U.S. mail.

Time will tell whether any of these ambitious services will ever become the mapping equivalent of such community powerhouses as MySpace or YouTube. But if you're going to check out just one, head to Platial, which seems to have more--and more-detailed--posts than its competitors.

-- Dennis O'Reilly

Web Fuels Yellow Pages Growth, Medium Deemed Too 'Uncluttered'

IN WHAT IS PERHAPS ONE of the clearest examples of the Internet's impact on a traditional medium, the Yellow Pages industry is poised to release findings of its annual usage study, which will show that while overall usage of directories is rising, the growth is coming entirely from online.

Americans used Yellow Pages to look up 16.3 billion references during 2005--up from 16.1 billion in 2004, according to an advance look at the national results of the annual study conducted for the Yellow Pages Association by Knowledge Networks/Statistical Research Inc. While that's a healthy gain, the number of times American consumers referred to printed Yellow Pages actually declined to 14.5 billion in 2005, down from 14.6 billion in 2004.

That's the bad news, Neg Norton, president of the YPA acknowledges--but the good news is that online directories are making up the slack--growing to 1.8 billion references in 2005, up from 1.1 billion in 2002, the first year that KN/SRI began tracking online directories. That's good news, says Norton, because some cynics might have expected usage of print directories to erode even faster.

"Overall, they're flat," he says, adding that the two Yellow Pages platforms are actually complementing rather than cannibalizing each other. Among other things, the data reveals that different consumers utilize print and online directories differently and at different times. The findings reveal that online Yellow Pages usage is greater in so-called A counties where broadband access may be more plentiful, whereas the print directories' index is higher in B and C counties. The report also offers ample data showing the demographic skew of online vs. print directories.

Heavy users of the print Yellow Pages, for example, tend to be 25- to-49-year-olds, who are college-educated, reside in upper-income households, have large families, travel frequently, and have recently moved. The profile for Internet Yellow Pages users skews to more toward the 18- to-49-year-old crowd.

But the most surprising finding in the new report is the attitude Yellow Pages users have toward advertising. Unlike most media where advertising is deemed "clutter," most Yellow Pages consumers consider it "content." In fact, 18 percent of the 9,078 consumers surveyed by KN/SRI said they wanted more ads in their Yellow Pages directories.

"Most media are sellers looking for buyers," Norton quips, adding that Yellow Pages users are "buyers looking for sellers."

And according to the new report, they are mostly in the market to buy something to eat. "Restaurants" was the No. 1 Yellow Pages heading in both print and online directories during 2005. Beyond that, print and online have little in common in terms of the categories consumers use Yellow Pages to search for. "Physicians & Surgeons" ranked No. 2 in print, while "Hotels" ranked second online.

Despite the obvious relevance of Yellow Pages to many major product categories, the medium has had a difficult time attracting major brand advertisers in most big consumer categories, largely because they see directories as a local medium and don't necessarily believe in its ability to promote brands. In recent years, the industry has tried to convince marketers such as Procter & Gamble to advertise Crest toothpaste under headings for dentists--but except for a few experiments, Yellow Pages are still relegated largely to retail, and local mom-and-pop establishments.

But in what was perhaps one of the most creative uses of the medium ever, Starcom placed ads around the Las Vegas Yellow Pages for client Kellogg's Special K brand. The ad pointed out that the same number of pounds that the directory weighed would be what consumers would lose if they stuck with a Special K diet.

Annual Yellow Pages References

                Print          Online            Total 
2005:    14.5 billion     1.8 billion     16.3 billion 
2004:    14.6 billion     1.5 billion     16.1 billion 
2003:    14.9 billion     1.2 billion     16.1 billion 
2002:    15.1 billion     1.1 billion     16.2 billion 
2001:    15.1 billion              NA     15.1 billion 
2000:    14.9 billion              NA     14.9 billion 

Source: Knowledge Networks/SRI for the Yellow Pages Association.

A day of snapshots of all the radar/radio contact air traffic in US airspace

Via Craigslist LA

Reply to: job-194429968@craigslist.org
Date: 2006-08-15, 9:12AM PDT

I am producing a new series for The Travel Channel, a part of Discovery Networks. It is based on VCC, or Viewer Contributed Content. If you have a video camera at home and editing software, I will pay you up to $1000 for 3-5 minute videos stories about you and your travels. Just about any kind of story will do, so long as it is travel related and compelling to watch. I am looking for creativity, originality, new voices and new ideas. There was a time when television production was in the hands of a select few. Now, your voice and your creative and filmmaking abilities can be seen and heard. If you have what it takes to break out of old ways of thinking and uses of video, this could be your big break.

* Job location is WORLDWIDE

Growth in number of travel websites soars

According to research by Internet Security Systems over the past twelve months, the growth in the number of travel websites has soared by 25 percent.

Further evidence of this online travel boom comes from a recently published paper by Forrester Research which found that one in three of the euros, pounds, or kronor that European consumers spend online goes towards leisure trip bookings. The report also estimated that online travel spending will grow by 133 percent to almost euro 77 billion in 2011.

Interestingly, the research conducted by ISS has found that over half of the world's travel websites are located in the USA - 60.4 percent. Germany follows in second place with 12.9 percent and Great Britain in third with only 5% of all travel websites hosted there.

Top 5 countries worldwide that host travel websites:

1. USA (60.4 %)

2. Germany (12.9 %)

3. Great Britain (5.0 %)

4. Austria (4.2 %)

5. Canada (2.9 %)

6. Other (14.5 %)

Top 5 European countries that host travel websites (measured according to the share of travel websites hosted worldwide):

1. Germany (12.9 %)

2. Great Britain (5.0 %)

3. Austria (4.2 %)

4. The Netherlands (1.3 %)

5. France (1.2 %)

Report: Google Coupons Threatens Newspapers

A NEW GOOGLE PROGRAM THAT allows merchants to create printable coupon pages linked to their Google Maps entry potentially threatens the $1.1 billion that coupon advertisers spend in newspapers, according to a report released Tuesday by Merrill Lynch. But the impact likely won't be felt in the short-term, because the early users of the service will probably be small self-service marketers, predicted the investment house. "We think the near term impact is minimal, but longer term we have some serious concern," stated the report.

Influence

By Robert B. Cialdini, Ph.D.

Introduction

Robert Cialdini is a Professor of Psychology at Arizona State University and has spent many years devoted to the scientific investigation and research of persuasion techniques. His book " Influence" has become a classic. Within his book Cialdini lists six basic social and psychological principles that form the foundation for successful strategies used to achieve influence.

Those six principles are:

Rule of Reciprocity

According to sociologists and anthropologists, one of the most widespread and basic norms of human culture is embodied in the rule of reciprocity. This rule requires that one person try to repay what another person has provided. By obligating the recipient to an act of repayment in the future--the rule for reciprocation allows one individual to give something to another with the confidence that it is not being lost.

This sense of future obligation according to the rule makes possible the development of various kinds of continuing relationships, transactions, and exchanges that are beneficial to society. Consequently, virtually all members of society are trained from childhood to abide by this rule or suffer serious social disapproval.

The decision to comply with someone's request is frequently based upon the Rule of Reciprocity. Again, a possible and profitable tactic to gain probable compliance would be to give something to someone before asking for a favor in return.

The opportunity to exploit this tactic is due to three characteristics of the Rule of Reciprocity:

1. The rule is extremely powerful, often overwhelming the influence of other factors that normally determine compliance with a request.

2. The rule applies even to uninvited first favors, which reduces our ability to decide whom we wish to owe and putting the choice in the hands of others

3. The rule can spur unequal exchanges. That is--to be rid of the uncomfortable feeling of indebtedness, an individual will often agree to a request for a substantially larger favor, than the one he or she first received.

Another way in which the Rule of Reciprocity can increase compliance involves a simple variation on the basic theme: instead of providing a favor first that stimulates a returned favor, an individual can make instead an initial concession--that stimulates a return concession.

One compliance procedure, called the "rejection-then-retreat technique", or door-in-the-face technique, relies heavily on the pressure to reciprocate concessions. By starting with an extreme request that is sure to be rejected, the requester can then profitably retreat to a smaller request--the one that was desired all along. This request is likely to now be accepted because it appears to be a concession. Research indicates, that aside from increasing the likelihood that a person will say yes to a request--the rejection-then-retreat technique also increases the likelihood that the person will carry out the request a will agree to future requests.

The best defense against manipulation by the use of the Rule of Reciprocity to gain compliance is not the total rejection of initial offers by others. But rather, accepting initial favors or concessions in good faith, while also remaining prepared to see through them as tricks--should they later be proven so. Once they are seen in this way, there is no longer a need to feel the necessity to respond with a favor or concession.

Commitment and Consistency

People have a desire to look consistent through their words, beliefs, attitudes and deeds and this tendency is supported or fed from three sources:

1. Good personal consistency is highly valued by society.

2. Consistent conduct provides a beneficial approach to daily life.

3. A consistent orientation affords a valuable shortcut through the complexity of modern existence. That is-- by being consistent with earlier decisions we can reduce the need to process all the relevant information in future similar situations. Instead, one merely needs to recall the earlier decision and respond consistently.

The key to using the principles of Commitment and Consistency to manipulate people is held within the initial commitment. That is--after making a commitment, taking a stand or position, people are more willing to agree to requests that are consistent with their prior commitment. Many compliance professionals will try to induce others to take an initial position that is consistent with a behavior they will later request.

Commitments are most effective when they are active, public, effortful, and viewed as internally motivated and not coerced. Once a stand is taken, there is a natural tendency to behave in ways that are stubbornly consistent with the stand. The drive to be and look consistent constitutes a highly potent tool of social influence, often causing people to act in ways that are clearly contrary to their own best interests.

Commitment decisions, even erroneous ones, have a tendency to be self-perpetuating--they often "grow their own legs." That is--those involved may add new reasons and justifications to support the wisdom of commitments they have already made. As a consequence, some commitments remain in effect long after the conditions that spurred them have changed. This phenomenon explains the effectiveness of certain deceptive compliance practices.

To recognize and resist the undue influence of consistency pressures upon our compliance decisions--we can listen for signals coming from two places within us--our stomach or "gut reaction" and our heart.

• A bad feeling in the pit of the stomach may appear when we realize that we are being pushed by commitment and consistency pressures to agree to requests we know we don't want to perform.

• Our heart may bother us when it is not clear that an initial commitment was right.

At such points it is meaningful to ask a crucial question, "Knowing what I know now, if I could go back, would I have made the same commitment?"

Social Proof

One means used to determine what is correct is to find out what others believe is correct. People often view a behavior as more correct in a given situation--to the degree that we see others performing it.

This principle of Social Proof can be used to stimulate a person's compliance with a request by informing him or her that many other individuals, perhaps some that are role models, are or have observed this behavior. This tool of influence provides a shortcut for determining how to behave. But at the same time it can make those involved with using this social shortcut--vulnerable to the manipulations of others who seek to exploit such influence through such things as seminars, group introduction dinners, retreats etc. Group members may then provide the models for the behavior that each group plans to produce in its potential new members.

Social proof is most influential under two conditions:

1. Uncertainty--when people are unsure and the situation is ambiguous they are more likely to observe the behavior of others and to accept that behavior as correct

2. Similarity--people are more inclined to follow the lead of others who are similar.

Some recommendations on how to reduce susceptibility to contrived social proofs would include a greater sensitivity to clearly counterfeit evidence. That is--what others are doing and their behavior should not form a sole basis for decision-making.

Liking

People prefer to say yes to individuals they know and like. This simple rule helps to understand how Liking can create influence and how compliance professionals may emphasize certain factors and/or attributes to increase their overall attractiveness and subsequent effectiveness. Compliance practitioners may regularly use several factors.

Physical attractiveness--is one feature of a person that often may help to create some influence. Although it has long been suspected that physical beauty provides an advantage in social interaction, research indicates that this advantage may be greater than once supposed. Physical attractiveness seems to engender a "halo" effect that extends to favorable impressions of other traits such as talent, kindness, and intelligence. As a result, attractive people are more persuasive both in terms of getting what they request and in changing others' attitudes.

Similarity--is a second factor that influences both Liking and compliance. That is--we like people who are like us and are more willing to say yes to their requests, often without much critical consideration.

Praise--is another factor that produces Liking, though this can sometimes backfire when they are crudely transparent. But generally compliments most often enhance liking and can be used as a means to gain compliance.

Increased familiarity--through repeated contact with a person or thing is yet another factor that normally facilitates Liking. But this holds true principally when that contact takes place under positive rather than negative circumstances. One positive circumstance that may works well is mutual and successful cooperation.

A final factor linked to Liking is often association. By associating with products or positive things--those who seek influence frequently share in a halo effect by association. Other individuals as well appear to recognize the positive effect of simply associating themselves with favorable events and distancing themselves from unfavorable ones.

A potentially effective response that reduces vulnerability to the undue influence of Liking upon decision-making requires a recognition of how Liking and its attending factors may impact our impression of someone making requests and soliciting important decisions. That is-- recognizing how someone making requests may do inordinately well under certain circumstances--should cause us to step back from some social interaction and objectively separate the requester from his or her offer or request. We should make decisions, commitments and offer compliance based upon the actual merits of the offer or request.

Authority

In the seminal studies and research conducted by Milgram regarding obedience there is evidence of the strong pressure within our society for compliance when requested by an authority figure. The strength of this tendency to obey legitimate authorities is derived from the systematic socialization practices designed to instill in society the perception that such obedience constitutes correct conduct. Additionally, it is also frequently adaptive to obey the dictates of genuine authorities because such individuals usually possess high levels of knowledge, wisdom, and power. For these reasons, deference to authorities can occur in a mindless fashion as a kind of decision-making shortcut. When reacting to authority in an automatic fashion there is a tendency to often do so in response to the mere symbols of authority rather than to its substance.

Three types of symbols have been demonstrated through research as effective in this regard:

1. Titles

2. Clothing

3. Automobiles.

In separate studies investigating the influence of these symbols--individuals that possessed one or another of these symbols, even without other legitimizing credentials, were accorded more deference or obedience by those they encountered. Moreover, in each instance, those individuals who deferred and/or obeyed these individuals underestimated the effect of authority pressures upon their behavior.

Asking two questions can attain a meaningful defense against the detrimental effects of undue influence gained through authority.

1. Is this authority truly an expert?

2. How truthful can we expect this expert to be?

The first question directs our attention away from symbols and toward actual evidence for authority status. The second advises us to consider not just the expert's knowledge in the situation, but also his or her trustworthiness. With regard to this second consideration, we should be alert to the trust-enhancing tactic in which a communicator may first provide some mildly negative information about himself or herself. This can be seen as a strategy to create the perception of honesty--making subsequent information seem more credible to those listening.

Scarcity

According to the Principle of Scarcity--people assign more value to opportunities when they are less available. The use of this principle for profit can be seen in such high-pressure sales techniques as only a "limited number" now available and a "deadline" set for an offer. Such tactics attempt to persuade people that number and/or time restrict access to what is offered. The scarcity principle holds true for two reasons:

1. Things difficult to attain are typically more valuable. And the availability of an item or experience can serve as a shortcut clue or cue to its quality.

2. When something becomes less accessible, the freedom to have it may be lost.

According to psychological reactance theory, people respond to the loss of freedom by wanting to have it more. This includes the freedom to have certain goods and services. As a motivator, psychological reactance is present throughout the great majority of a person's life span. However, it is especially evident at a pair of ages: "the terrible twos" and the teenage years. Both of these periods are characterized by an emerging sense of individuality, which brings to prominence such issues as control, individual rights, and freedoms. People at these ages are especially sensitive to restrictions.

In addition to its effect on the valuation of commodities, the Principle of Scarcity also applies to the way that information is evaluated. Research indicates that the act of limiting access to a message may cause individuals to want it more and to become increasingly favorable to it. The latter of these findings, that limited information is more persuasive--seems the most interesting. In the case of censorship, this effect occurs even when the message has not been received. When a message has been received, it is more effective if it is perceived to consist of some type of exclusive information.

The scarcity principle is more likely to hold true under two optimizing conditions

1. Scarce items are heightened in value when they are newly scarce. That is things have higher value when they have become recently restricted--more than those than those things that were restricted all along have.

2. People are most attracted to scarce resources when they compete with others for them.

It is difficult to prepare ourselves cognitively against scarcity pressures because they have an emotional quality that makes thinking difficult. In defense, we might attempt to be alert regarding the sudden rush of emotions in situations involving scarcity. Perhaps this awareness may allow us to remain calm and take steps to assess the merits of an opportunity in terms of why we really want and objectively need.

This is based upon the summary notes within the book--

Influence. By Robert B. Cialdini, Ph.D. (Quill, NY, 1984 (Revised 1993)

Road Trip Reveals Increasingly Familiar Landscape

The New York Times
New York Times advertising columnist Stuart Elliott is back from a three-week, 16-state, 3,989-mile road trip, and reports the country is growing increasingly homogenized. But he found a few surprises. Trend #1: Higher-priced, better-quality products are becoming part of the mainstream. Starbucks is now as common at Interstate rest stops as the fast-food mainstays. Motel chains are stocking upscale toiletries. Billboards peddle high-end brands like Pom Wonderful pomegranate beverages and Rolex and Breitling watches. Trend #2: High tech is penetrating the heartland. Free high-speed Internet access, free wireless and Wi-Fi hot spots are available at lower-priced motel chains like Quality Inn and Super 8. Meanwhile, a paucity of ads for overpriced gasoline is counterbalanced by a considerable amount of marketing for religion. One billboard on I-75, south of Gainesville, Fla., read: "The narrow road leads to life eternal. The broad road to hell. Which road are you on?" - Read the whole story...

SideStep taps VFM Interactive for rich media content

August 14, 2006

SideStep announced today the addition of virtual tours, video and other rich media from VFM Interactive into its Hotels category.

The seamless integration of VFM's hotel content and rich media visuals within the hotel comparison shopping path allows consumers the opportunity to select and view more highly detailed visuals to learn more about the unique features of a specific hotel property.

"SideStep is continually focused on offering the best user experience, and the addition of VFM's high-quality portfolio of rich digital media content furthers the level of comfort for any consumer looking to book a hotel online," said Rob Solomon, CEO, SideStep, Inc. "We're thrilled to incorporate video content that ensures consumers can fully explore the options that best fit their individual preferences and budget."

"Rich media is a critical component of travel shopping since consumers want a tangible preview into their upcoming travel experience," said Paolo Boni, president and CEO of VFM Interactive. "We're delighted to work with SideStep as it's a terrific resource for those who book travel online. SideStep allows for easy comparisons of hotels - beyond just price and location - to find the perfect hotel with the range of services and amenities that will contribute to their overall travel experience."

VFM's library of hotel information and visuals is regularly updated by working directly with its 10,000 hospitality clients, representing the largest chains and independent properties, to ensure that the descriptions and visual marketing components, such as photographs, virtual tours and videos, are up-to-date and the most relevant for the consumer.

Sponsored Ads Capture Travel Clickthrough

comScore Media Metrix introduced "Competitive Search Marketing Reports" by examining the effectiveness of search campaigns conducted by the most-visited online travel agencies. The analysis showed that more than 50 percent of the total click-throughs to these sites were generated by sponsored ads, compared to just 11 percent across all Web search activity.

Among the sites analyzed, Orbitz.com and CheapTickets.com led the pack, each receiving approximately 72 percent of click-throughs from sponsored ads.

Select Online Travel Agency Sites by Sponsored Ad Impressions April 06
Property	Sponsored Ad Impressions (000)	Sponsored Click- Through Rate	Sponsored Click-Throughs (000)	Percent of Total Click-Throughs from Sponsored Ads	Share of Search Ad Exposures
Expedia.com	80,462	4.9%	3,906	62.5%	33.5%
Orbitz.com	77,463	4.4%	3,423	72.1%	32.3%
CheapTickets.com	50,657	4.0%	2,004	71.7%	21.1%
Travelocity.com	31,374	6.5%	2,032	59.9%	13.1%
Total	239,956	4.7%	11,366	66.1%	100.0%
Source: comScore qSearch Competitive Search Marketer Report

Peter Daboll, president and CEO of comScore Media Metrix, said "With search advertising accounting for roughly 40 percent of total online spending... advertisers view the medium as a critical component of the advertising mix... (making it) ...important for advertisers to focus on the search terms that have the most relevance to their target audience."

comScore's analysis revealed that Yahoo! was the preferred engine for sponsored ad campaigns among the most-visited online travel agency sites in April, receiving nearly 44 percent of the sponsored ads placed by these sites.

Search Source of Traffic for Online Travel Agency Sites April 2006
Property	Percent of Sponsored Travel Ads	Percent of Sponsored Click-Throughs	Sponsored Percent of Total Click-Throughs
Yahoo! Web Search	43.6%	32%	59.4%
Google Web Search	26.0%	35%	59.1%
MSN Web Search	19.4%	22%	95.8%
AOL Search	7.0%	9%	73.2%
Source: comScore qSearch Competitive Search Marketer Report

The report examined the non-travel (and travel) sites that were popular among consumers whose search behavior ultimately led them to online travel agency Web sites. These consumers were more likely than the norm to visit a variety of non-travel sites, including those offering local content and wedding sites.

Top Indexing Sites Among those Searching on Terms Referring Traffic to Online Travel Agency Sites April 06
Site	Index	Site	Index
BIZJOURNALS.COM	227	TRAVELNOW.COM	322
About Cities & Towns	222	HOTELS.COM	315
DOITYOURSELF.COM	214	TRIPADVISOR.COM	299
CITYSEARCH.COM	213	HOTWIRE.COM	292
MSN Local Search	213	ORBITZ.COM	286
EPINIONS.COM	210	SIDESTEP.COM	286
THEKNOT.COM	209	Travelocity All	280
WEDDINGCHANNEL.COM	209	Yahoo! U.S. Travel	279
About Food	209	TRAVELZOO.COM	278
SFGATE.COM	208	About Travel	277
Source: comScore qSearch Competitive Search Marketer Report

Note: Index is the propensity of consumers conducting travel-related searches to visit a site compared to the average Internet user. An index of 100 represents parity.

Consumers conducting online travel-related searches are more likely than the norm to be from higher income households without children, and to conduct their searches from work:

• Households with an income of more than $100,000 are 10 percent more likely than average to conduct a search on travel terms, while households with an income of $75,000 - 99,000 are 3 percent more likely to do so.
• Households with one member are 7 percent more likely to conduct a search on travel terms, while households with two members are 5 percent more likely to conduct travel searches.
• In households where children are not present, consumers are 6 percent more likely to conduct a search on travel-related terms.
• Consumers in the 25-34 and 55-64 age ranges are more likely to conduct travel-related searches (2 and 4 percent, respectively).
• Consumers are 23 percent more likely conduct travel-related searches while at work.

For more information on the Report and the comScore service, please go here.

Online Travel Worldwide: A Mosaic of Separate Markets

Flight delays grow by the hour, ticket prices have soared (mostly due to increased fuel costs), and security issues remain at the forefront of the travel industry--and yet online travel consumers in the U.S. are poised to spend some $122 billion by 2009, according to a recent report from eMarketer.

The report, "Online Travel Worldwide: A Mosaic of Separate Markets," identifies the U.S. as the global leader in online travel expenditures. U.S. leisure and corporate travel consumers will spend $122.4 billion by 2009, up from $64.9 billion last year, while European travelers spent $35.5 billion online in 2005 . And, the Asia-Pacific region, now one-quarter the size of the U.S. market, reaped $15.9 billion in 2005, but is poised for growth in upcoming years.

The report's demographic studies of travelers in the U.S., Europe, and the Asia-Pacific region show the emergence of an older generation of travelers: baby boomers (ages 45 to 60), who are healthy, adventurous and affluent, as well as Internet-savvy. "Online travel distributors and marketers who pay attention to these customers and design travel offers matching their interests and needs will reap rewards," said Jeffrey Grau, eMarketer's senior analyst and author of the report, in a statement.

The U.S. represents the most mature travel market, but growth is slowing, while southern and eastern Europe have untapped potential. The four fastest-growing travel markets over the next four years are China, South Korea, India, and Japan, the report finds. China, with projected travel spending growth of 18.3 percent to 2010, will rise from seventh place to fourth place in personal and business travel spending among the world's 16 largest economies.

The report indicates that searching for flights and comparing fares is relatively easy on the Web, making online travel planning and buying a natural. The report also notes that 21 percent of respondents to a 2005 ACNielsen survey of over 21,000 Internet users in 38 countries worldwide reported that airline tickets were one of their last three online purchases. Tours and hotel reservations are less popular online purchases because customer service plays a larger role in consumers making these buying decision, according to the eMarketer report.

Online leisure/unmanaged business travel sales in the U.S. will total $77.7 billion in 2006, according to eMarketer estimates. If online corporate travel sales of $36.5 billion, estimated by PhoCusWright, are factored in, then total U.S. online travel sales will equal $114.2 billion in 2006. PhoCusWright also estimates that total U.S. travel sales (online and offline) will be $235.2 billion this year. This means that in 2006 online sales will account for about 49 percent of total travel sales.

Social-networking site satisfies travelers' wanderlust

Sam Rogoway and Emily Dahlberg were vacationing in the Caribbean surrounded by sandy beaches and sparkling blue oceans. Unfortunately, the locations their guidebook suggested weren't quite so picturesque.

When the book directed the couple to a far-from-hopping bar, it was the last straw. Irritated by the obsolete information of another out-of-touch guidebook, they set out to find a better way to travel.

And Tripmates was born.

The new beta Web site, which launched on Aug. 1, relies on the online social-networking model to connect travelers eager to swap information and even find travel buddies. Unlike MySpace or Facebook, which were created to connect people around a broader nexus of general networking, Tripmates is designed with a very specific demographic in mind.

Sam Rogoway and Emily Dahlberg

"We aren't trying to be the next MySpace, but we are trying to be the social network for everything travel-related," Rogoway said.

To create the site, the engaged couple abandoned their glamorous Hollywood jobs--Rogoway's as an entertainment attorney and Dahlberg's at a public-relations company--for the often unpredictable world of technology.

Tripmates currently has about 1,500 registered users from around the world.

While the site's travel focus is new to the Web 2.0 social-networking scene, according to Rogoway, many of its features are not. Tripmates allows users to create profiles, showcasing their personal details, which are dubbed "the essentials." This information includes name, age, relationship status, location and occupation. The "excess baggage" section reveals users' favorite and dream destinations, which vary from local states to foreign countries.

Other features of the site include trip blogs; reviews of restaurants and offbeat destinations; photo albums; and forums. Site members (joining is free) can also keep trip logs, share details of upcoming trips and even use a "trip tracks" section, which allows globetrotters to input their favorite travel songs. The Tripmates feature is the equivalent of having "friends" on another social-networking site, where you can view the profiles of other users and comment on their photos, profiles and blogs.

Members can even register to be a "trip guru" for a specific city, becoming the resident expert by fielding questions and making suggestions for hot spots.

Another aspect of the site is the Tripvite feature, "an Evite-type feature, but for travel," according to Rogoway. "We built a really simple, easy-to-use interface that allows you to share the details of a group trip with friends. Then you can keep track of who's coming, easily update the details of the trip, and all your friends are instantly notified."

Prior to embarking on their Tripmates odyssey, the pair had virtually no experience working with electronic media--"this was a first for both of us," said Dahlberg. But Rogoway ultimately sees that perspective as a plus. "It's really simple to use and nice to look at," he said. "Not coming from a tech background has made the site really user-friendly."

In an age of social-networking mania, Rogoway shares some insight into why he thinks Tripmates is different from the rest. "What really makes us special is the interactive capability and the ease to find people to either travel with or seek advice from," he said. "It would have been much easier traveling a couple years ago if we had a site like this."

Travel websites for the myspace generation

Gemma Bowes, Sunday August 6, 2006, The Observer

Less than a decade ago, the arrival of huge online travel agents such as Expedia revolutionised the way we bought holidays and gave even the hardened technophobe a reason to log on to the internet.

But now a new wave of interactive travel sites that allow holidaymakers to post their own hotel reviews and destination advice are attracting just as many browsers looking for up-to-the-minute, honest information that can't be found in guidebooks.

Unlike sites such as Travelocity and Expedia, which sell the components of holidays - flights, car hire, hotels - the new 'social' or 'me media' sites allow readers to swap information about holidays, chat or make friends. The most popular of these 'user-generated content' sites is Tripadvisor.com, which launched six years ago and now receives 20 million visitors a month worldwide - the same number as Lastminute.com, which was rated the most visited 'destinations and accommodation' website in the UK for 2005.

Although Tripadvisor is funded by advertising and is owned by Expedia, its principal purpose is to provide a place for people to post independent reviews, and share information. It is updated by readers every minute.

Current most-visited pages include a posting about family holidays to Niagara Falls and what to see in Boston. Chatroom discussions include where to buy Russian military memorabilia in Moscow and how one should dress in Paris.

'The internet is returning to its origins with content that is driven by individuals rather than corporations,' says Ian Rumgay, spokesman for Tripadvisor. 'Our site is about passing information by word of mouth, but on a bigger scale.'

Analysts say this trend signals a change across the internet - that it is being reclaimed by the public as a place for social networking and exchanging information instead of somewhere for companies to sell their products.

Another well-known example is the growth of Myspace.com, a site for people to network and swap comments, particularly about music, which last month overtook Yahoo and Google as the most visited website in the US.

And there are many similar travel sites that feature reviews and advice from 'normal people', including Virtualtourist.com , Holidaywatchdog.com and Thetravelinsider.info.

Now travel agents are starting to cotton on to the trend. In December, Lastminute launched Lastminuteliving.com, a 'community site' that allows readers to post reviews of hotels and general travel advice, though it has only attracted 1,300 posts so far. 'Before long, the public will expect this sort of interactivity as the norm rather than the exception,' says a spokeswoman.

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