Thursday, November 30, 2006
The future of local news?
Chris Tolles, the head of marketing, for Topix, the news aggregator, may be the only guy in the Valley who speaks faster than Marc Andreessen. By the time he was done with his two hour brain dump Tuesday in Wired's dining room I was whipped.
But it's good he came by. I haven't been paying enough attention to what he and his few dozen colleagues down in Palo Alto have been doing. I thought Topix was just another news aggregator like Google News or Yahoo News, and I figured that since it was backed by Tribune, Gannett and McClatchy, I wasn't going to be impressed. Wrong.
It's become common among readers to moan about how all news is becoming commoditized. There's some truth to this when it applies to news out of Washington or Iraq. Not true of local news, however. Every publication writing about a place like Huntington Beach thinks about the news there differently. You'd have to check the Independent, the Daily Pilot, the Orange County Register, the LA Times and the Long Beach Press Telegram to really find out what was going on.
This is what is cool about Topix. A geolocating algorithm they've developed allows you to get all the news relevant to any zip code or city from all of its 50,000 news sources. Punch in the coordinates for Surf City and you get all the stories out of all the local papers, without repeats, in one place, along with news about Huntington Beach from other locales like Santa Cruz. You can comment on any of the stories, and people do in droves. Total comments for all stories now approach 100,000.
You can also use Topix to search 5,500 public company and industry verticals, 48,000 celebrities and musicians, 1,500 sports teams and personalities. You used to have to pay big money to do a Lexis-Nexis search to get info like this or pay a clipping service like Burrelles. Now anyone can do it for free. Something tells me this is going to be a very big deal.
Thursday, November 23, 2006
TrackStick GPS Data Logger
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Portably Track (via GPS) Your Adventures Via Google Earth or Mapquest!
This small GPS gadget can easily be placed in a car, boat, land speeder, or just about any moving object and will record its own time, date, location, speed, direction and altitude. The recorded information can then be downloaded to your computer through the USB port and optionally integrated with Google Earth or Mapquest. This feature allows you to "playback" the location points of the TrackStick and see a visual mapped history of its travels.
Containing 1MB of memory it can store up to 4000 records allowing for months of travel. When the TrackStick is not moving, memory is not used. The record interval is adjustable to anything between 1 and 15 minutes (this is used to save memory and will not extend the battery life). It's so small you can hide it for covert applications. There are no special software applications to buy and the raw data can be exported in RTF, XLS, HTML, or Google Earth KML formats.
Also has these features
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Wednesday, November 22, 2006
Travelport relies on diversity to beat online booking rivals
Ex-Cendant unit's brands serve individuals, travel agents and corporations
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NEW YORK -- Without a trace of irony, president and CEO Jeff Clarke wastes no time in describing Travelport as a travel-services conglomerate. Just a year ago, the term "conglomerate" was an epithet within former parent company Cendant Corp. Former Cendant chairman and CEO Henry R. Silverman cited the discount that stockholders and analysts assigned to the company's structure as an umbrella for several industries, and the Byzantine financial statements that came with it, as a chief culprit in the stock price moving little in seven years. As the answer, Cendant was broken into four pieces on the theory that investors would rather own stock in individual industries that they liked than have to buy a package. The rehabilitation of the conglomerate, in Clarke's view, gives Travelport the base that it needs to ride out the turbulence of computer travel booking as well as pay down the $3.6 billion in junk-bond debt that it shouldered when New York investment firm Blackstone Group bought it for $4.3 billion in August. "We have an incredible amount of geographic diversity and an incredible amount of business diversity," he said while sitting in the lush former Cendant headquarters on West 57th Street that the company will soon vacate. "We have a company that is hard to match in the travel industry." Travelport will maintain a small Manhattan presence elsewhere but is shifting the New York location, as well as another in Parsippany that it inherited from Cendant, into a more modest building in Parsippany. The company's recent history has not been as upbeat as the new outlook. In December, Samuel L. Katz stepped down as chairman and CEO of what was then Cendant's Travel Distribution Services division after stumbles, particularly overseas, forced the company to issue a reduced earnings estimate that sent the stock downward. Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization of $469 million in 2004 plunged by more than three-fourths last year. While Silverman defended the division as generally strong and growing, with problems confined to a few areas, he felt compelled to reassure investors that "TDS is not melting down." In addition, Travelport and its rivals face several structural changes that are squeezing them financially, both for bookings made through travel industry professionals and by consumers directly. Airlines, which account for more than half of all bookings and are projected to remain dominant for several years, have steadily reduced what they pay in fees and commissions to booking services while trying to lure passengers to use their Web sites. Although they account for much lower sales, hotels and car-rental companies, including former Cendant divisions, have followed suit. 'Competitive environment' "This is certainly a very competitive environment," said Susan Clarkson, a senior analyst at Jupiter Research. "You don't see that kind of direct sales by providers in other industries." Furniture makers, for example, will maintain online catalogues but they always direct customers to the nearest store. Jupiter predicts that total online travel bookings will rise from $72 billion last year to $128 billion in 2011, but the share of purchases flowing through a supplier's Web site will grow from 56 percent to 62 percent during the same span. The convergence of the trends became apparent in August, when Blackstone paid $4.3 billion for Travelport. This caused Travelport to take a $1.2 billion writedown in the second quarter. The amount represented the difference between the price that Blackstone paid and the higher value that Cendant showed for Travelport on its books based on how much it cost Cendant to acquire the different pieces. Clarke, who was hired in April after stints at CA, formerly Computer Associates, and Hewlett-Packard, said this is where the value of the conglomerate kicks in. He has announced a plan to combine certain operations to reduce operating costs by $75 million a year as well as meld some of the technologies among the divisions. CheapTickets, aimed at consumers, has been put on the same technological platform as Galileo, which sells to large corporate travel departments and travel agents. "To try to find synergies between rental cars, hotels, real estate and travel distribution is a challenge, a very high bar to clear," Clarke said, referring to the former Cendant businesses. "We have found very clear areas (within Travelport) for working together." And, he said, the geographic spread and differences between consumer and business orientations among Travelport's more than 20 brands help prevent weakness in a particular area from dragging down the whole company, a classic trait of conglomerates. The ultimate goal, within the next few years, would be to generate enough growth on sales, which were $2.6 billion for the 12 months ended June 30, and strong enough profits so Blackstone could launch an initial public stock offering and cash out at a profit. 1 company, 3 divisions The company has been reorganized along "decentralized" lines into three divisions: Galileo, Orbitz Worldwide and Gulliver Travel Associates. Clarke described this as a way to overcome some of the previous internal hurdles, particularly along geographic lines. The reorganization also makes it easier to sell or spin off divisions if that looks more attractive than a stock sale. Here is a breakdown of the divisions: • Gulliver, a wholesaler of travel products mainly in Europe. • Galileo, which falls under the broad category of global distribution services. Galileo acts a one-stop middleman for travel agents and companies with large platoons of road warriors. It can book land, air and sea trips. Travelport has signed contracts spanning five to seven years, with the top six U.S. airlines and has added others, such as JetBlue. "While there were some price concessions, we are pleased with the outcome because the economics are known and stable," Clarke said. In various forums, he has yet to spell out how the contracts will affect revenues and profits, but airlines have continually pressed for lower fees and tried to circumvent distribution networks whenever possible. Combined with the maturity and widespread use of the systems -- Galileo traces its roots to the early 1970s -- growth has run in low and mid-single-digit percentages and profit margins have been squeezed. This has been the experience throughout the industry, including at major rivals, such as Sabre, Clarkson said. One alternative has been to evolve from middlemen to technology consultants. European governments have discussed, but so far moved slowly, to deregulate the distribution systems as a way to open up competition. Business-to-business booking accounted for $1.8 billion of Travelport's $2.6 billion in revenues for the 12 months through June. The company does not break out the results of Galileo and Gulliver separately. The second-quarter earnings announcement did disclose that Galileo subscription and software revenues fell as bookings rose. • Orbitz and several other labels grouped under it that are used by travelers. Although much smaller than business-to-business at $774 million of Travelport's revenues, the division has been growing at a much faster clip than the business side, but the profit margins remain lower. This division faces the same competition as suppliers trying to land more bookings for themselves. Continental Airlines, for example, gives full elite status credit for certain deep discount fares only for tickets purchased on www.continental.com. "This is something that has been happening across the board," said Aaron M. Kessler, who covers the industry as an analyst at the brokerage Piper Jaffray. "Airlines have been essentially cutting fees to the (online) agencies." To try to overcome this, various booking sites have added extras, such as Expedia's recent creation of a loyalty points program tied to Citigroup credit cards and Orbitz's post-sale updates on such things as flight delays or changed timetables. This practice showed up in the second quarter, when Travelport's consumer bookings rose more than 40 percent from a year earlier but revenue went up only 13 percent. The higher volumes and sale of higher-margin products boosted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization by 38 percent. Other entrants have cropped up that surf through a range of Web sites to find the best prices. However, "There have always been always been independents," Clarke said. He sees the principal rivalry as among four major players.
BOB KARP / DAILY RECORD
Travelport analysts Ramma Subramani, left, and Lava Mishra confer at the company's new office in Parsippany. The former Cendant Corp. division is consolidating its New York and New Jersey offices in Parsippany.
Tim O'Reiley can be reachedat (973) 428-6651 or toreiley@gannett.com.
American Express Launches Well-Designed Consumer-Engagement Sites
American Express Publishing, known for its high-end expertise on travel and luxury matters that are beyond most people's direct experience, is about to start up new wiki-based sites that let the public contribute. But AmEx, whose priority on design can be seen in titles such as Travel & Leisure and Food & Wine, may have found a way to avoid some unfriendly and inelegant aspects of sites such as Wikipedia. It wants its wiki to be pretty.
The company will begin early next month with a site for Executive Travel SkyGuide using a platform developed by Seattle's Wetpaint that will allow visitors to post reviews and articles alongside staff writers' content.
Ease for the consumer
"With the old wiki sites, every one was different and the rules of editing were different," said Mark Stanich, chief marketing officer, American Express Publishing Group. "If you were really intense you could get on there and go crazy but it wasn't really user friendly. This is really like using a word-processing tool. The ease of it to the consumer is important."
The company will begin early next month with a site for Executive Travel SkyGuide using a platform developed by Seattle's Wetpaint that will allow visitors to post reviews and articles alongside staff writers' content.
"The most important thing is that users and readers can share a platform with the published authors," said Ben Elowitz, CEO, Wetpaint. "The traditional magazine has a very, very small section called 'Letters to the editor.' This is the first time that sites can allow users not only to comment on articles but actually write articles."
Mr. Stanich called it a step beyond straight blogging, message boards or web-based groups. "We're seeding it with a lot of good archival things or points of view to riff on," he said. "That's what makes it new to us."
Two schools of thought
The effort, which AmEx hopes could turn profitable by year two on ad revenue, also weaves together two threads of thinking about modern publishing. Publishers frequently argue that magazines' editing and expertise are more important while more and more information floods consumers from all sides. Time Inc. Chairman-CEO Ann S. Moore, for example, has said that her company's core competency is editing. But there's a strong countercurrent of pressure to provide ways for readers to engage the very websites operated by media companies.
Launch advertiser Tourism Australia hopes that latter tactic -- soliciting consumer voices -- will make its campaigns more effective.
"The key for us is that word of mouth has always been the No. 1 motivator for travel anyway," said Michael Londregan, VP, Tourism Australia, Americas. "People's opinions seem to matter so much more than my opinion. This is sort of a cool way of us helping some people to get some good advice that isn't just delivered in ad-speak."
Ease for the consumer
"With the old wiki sites, every one was different and the rules of editing were different," said Mark Stanich, chief marketing officer, American Express Publishing Group. "If you were really intense you could get on there and go crazy but it wasn't really user friendly. This is really like using a word-processing tool. The ease of it to the consumer is important."
The company will begin early next month with a site for Executive Travel SkyGuide using a platform developed by Seattle's Wetpaint that will allow visitors to post reviews and articles alongside staff writers' content.
"The most important thing is that users and readers can share a platform with the published authors," said Ben Elowitz, CEO, Wetpaint. "The traditional magazine has a very, very small section called 'Letters to the editor.' This is the first time that sites can allow users not only to comment on articles but actually write articles."
Mr. Stanich called it a step beyond straight blogging, message boards or web-based groups. "We're seeding it with a lot of good archival things or points of view to riff on," he said. "That's what makes it new to us."
Two schools of thought
The effort, which AmEx hopes could turn profitable by year two on ad revenue, also weaves together two threads of thinking about modern publishing. Publishers frequently argue that magazines' editing and expertise are more important while more and more information floods consumers from all sides. Time Inc. Chairman-CEO Ann S. Moore, for example, has said that her company's core competency is editing. But there's a strong countercurrent of pressure to provide ways for readers to engage the very websites operated by media companies.
Launch advertiser Tourism Australia hopes that latter tactic -- soliciting consumer voices -- will make its campaigns more effective.
"The key for us is that word of mouth has always been the No. 1 motivator for travel anyway," said Michael Londregan, VP, Tourism Australia, Americas. "People's opinions seem to matter so much more than my opinion. This is sort of a cool way of us helping some people to get some good advice that isn't just delivered in ad-speak."
Tuesday, November 14, 2006
HomeAway Raises $160 Million for Vacation Rental-Site Rollups
Austin-based HomeAway raised a whopping $160 million from VC firms like Redpoint Ventures, IVP, and Trident to go on an acquisition binge and roll up the fragmented vacation rental Website industry. Usually rollups like this are done in more mature industries. File this one under, "Bubble Watch."
Monday, November 13, 2006
Web creates new generation of travel writers
Internet technologies have created new forms of publishing that are making it possible for any wannabe travel writer to see their work in print.
Online travel blogs and podcasts, which travellers produce on the move and upload on to the internet in the cyber cafes they visit during their journeys, are attracting audiences of thousands, and thanks to their success, small, independent publishing houses are now turning these amateur works into books.
'Travellers have always kept diaries and scrapbooks of their trips to share with friends and family and to remind them of their adventures. But the web has allowed these to reach a much wider audience, through blogs, podcasts and photo websites,' says Paul Carr, co-founder of ground-breaking publishing house The Friday Project, which specialises in web-to-print publishing. He has seen an increase in people approaching him with their travel blogs and is cashing in on their popularity by turning them into commercial travel books. The company recently published Le Cool: A Weird and Wonderful Guide to Barcelona, which started life as an email newsletter, and is converting tuktotheroad.co.uk a blog by two women who travelled from Bangkok to Brighton, into a book.
Another major trend is travellers using Print On Demand (POD) publishing: this allows anyone to upload their book onto a website, which readers then pay to download and print out or receive in book form by post.
Alastair Humphreys, a 26-year-old Scot, published his book Moods of Future Joys, an account of his epic journey cycling round the world through POD, after failing to secure a standard publishing deal. Though he marketed and edited it himself, it's selling well through Amazon and his website.
Even authors without mass-market potential are turning to POD. 'Most travellers use POD to convert their travel account into something that looks like a book, to share with family and friends,' says Moira Allen, editor of advice website writing-world.com.
Friday, November 10, 2006
Microsoft Virtual Earth - Now in 3D and With Billboards
Posted: 06 Nov 2006 04:09 PM CST Techcrunch.com
Microsoft is unveiling its integration of detailed 3D imagery into its Virtual Earth this afternoon (see Live.com). US users with Vista-ready Windows computers and IE 6 or 7 will be able to navigate through an aerial view of 15 select cities with enough detail to discern the texture of buildings and read clickable billboards from the likes of Fox, Nissan and John L. Scott Real Estate. Virtual Earth 3D is expected to expand to cover up to 100 cities around the world by the end of next summer.
Unlike Google Earth, Microsoft's Virtual Earth is experienced directly inside of IE as part of search results. Search team member Bobby Figueroa told me that the 3D functionality would be useful to many business customers as an integrated feature in offerings like Zillow's real estate search. The imagery was taken from planes and processed with proprietary algorithms.
He also told me that advertising was being integrated into Virtual Earth for the sake of realism. In real life, soda machines don't appear with black or white labels - they say Coke or Pepsi on them, he told me. To insufficiently brand Virtual Earth would apparently be irresponsible in some way, perhaps as an artistic or cultural loss. Figueroa said that billboards would have to prove compelling to users or they would not zoom in close enough to view them in detail and click through. Figueroa would not discuss the particular relationship with the first wave of advertisers but said that the company would evaluate all methods of ad sales and tracking in order to determine what worked best.
I certainly have no inherent objection to advertising, but I'm not excited about it being the first thing I see when I gain the ability to see a new environment in 3D. It seems like a cynical priority when a dazzling new technology is first rolled out. I don't know what I expected though, so I'll wish Vista-ready Windows owners who use IE the best of luck in enjoying the use of a newly 3D virtual world.
You've also got to wonder if anything will ever come of the really impressive Street-Side preview, which we wrote about in February. See also the 3D photo fly through app in the works in Live Labs, called Photosynth.
In addition to integration of Virtual Earth with search and some browsers, another thing you have to give Microsoft credit for is seriously improved picture quality. See the following two shots of San Francisco, Virtual Earth 3D on the left and Google Earth on the right. Lastly a very nice looking shot found on the Virtual Earth blog. Google's got some catching up to in regards to image detail. I'm going to try to grab an image of a billboard when I can.
Friday, November 03, 2006
What's Next? Web Lifestyle Television
LX.TV, a new broadband television network, launched yesterday as the first broadband television network for young affluent online consumers. Although LX.TV first appeared in June of this year as CODE.TV, LX.TV now stands for "Lifestyle Television" and is taking the idea of the tech-savvy moneyed user to a new level.
Although the online network provides professionally produced content, the site is little more than a style and entertainment guide for wealthy city dwellers in their 20s and 30s. Available only in Los Angeles and New York, the site treats visitors to information on shopping, nightlife, arts, health, and philanthropy, all broadcast in high definition.
LX.TV further sets itself apart from traditional broadband entertainment by masquerading as an actual television. When visitors log onto the site, a video plays automatically, just like turning on the TV. To change "channels" viewers can shop a number of two-minute previews before they choose what to view. LX.TV will also welcome the first broadband talk show, featuring MTV News correspondent SuChin Pak and interviews with arts and entertainment celebrities.
As one of the Internet's first broadband channels, LX.TV has a lot to live up to. And with all independently-produced content, it may well exceed expectations. The only question is the viability of the audience. Although Internet TV viewing is up, with 1 in 10 people watching, the target audience for LX.TV is more likely to have bottle service at Marquee than tune in to LX.TV for fashion and society updates.
But high profits in this new media market may keep it a success no matter how many viewers come to the site. Broadband channels eliminate high-cost barriers such as cable carrier or satellite fees, and there are no production studios needed for assembling the content. As long as this medium stays low cost and high profit, an on-demand delivery system can't be beat. LX.TV has also recruited an industry giant as their first sponsor -- Absolut Vodka is rumored to have paid six figures for a six-month sponsorship. The station has also acquired an agreement with NBBC, the syndicated broadband network of NBC, to deliver their content on affiliate networks' Web sites.
Considering the cult following of Rocketboom the video blog and its recent competitor Wallstrip, a similarly irreverent styled online video show, the content and potential sponsorship for LX.TV bodes well for its success.
What do you think? Is LX.TV destined for widespread success? Or do its creators need to go back to the broadband drawing room?
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