Rumour True! Google trialling meta-search in maps for hotels

Who knew that a BOOT rumour (admittedly one from a trusted source) could prove to be true. I wrote last week that I had a good but unsubstantiated story that Google was planning a launch of travel meta-search. Now we have confirmation that they are putting prices into the display of hotel results with priced links to booking engines. Not all users are seeing this functionality (in classic Google multi-variant testing) preventing me from giving you a screenshot of my own, but over at "eWeek Google Watch" you can see some screenshots of a "hotels in new york" search with prices and meta-search style functionality.

Kayak, Wego, Hotelscombined, Sprice and more - hold on to your algorithms this is going to be a bumpy ride!

More analysis over at Tnooz

PS - WOW I scored a TechCrunch link out of this

Google to launch travel meta-search in April according to unsubstantiated rumour

I heard an unsubstantiated rumour today. Someone told me something they heard from someone else that may know something. The rumour is that Google will be launching a travel meta-search product in the US next month (April). Now, let me say up front that this is nothing but rumour and I have not vetted it to anywhere near the levels of confirmation that a journalist would (may Kevin forgive me). Thought this would be a good chance to test out the power of the blog audience. Have any of you out there in blog land heard anything about Google going into travel meta-search in the coming weeks? Bing's doing it, maybe everybody should.

thanks to "This is a wake up call" for the great photo via flickr

The Innovation Index Strikes Back in 2009

The Innovation Index had a remarkable showing in 2009, gaining 48.65%, and beating S&P 500, Dow Jones and NASDAQ. 17 of the top 20 innovators were in the green. 3 of the top 20 innovators, including Amazon.com (NASDAQ: AMZN), Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) and Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) had over 100% gains. 16 of the top 20 innovators had double-digit gains. eBay (NASDAQ: EBAY) and Research In Motion (NASDAQ: RIMM) gained over 65% each. America Movil (NYSE: AMX), IBM (NYSE: IBM) and Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) gained over 50% each. Only 3 innovators were in the red.

2009 proved that the most innovative companies in USA are not only resilient, but bounce back bigger and faster compared to the general market. The Top 20 innovators performed extremely well, delivering explosive growth in business, profits, innovations, and stock performance.

How will the Innovation Index perform in 2010? Check back in April, 2010 for the quarterly report of the Innovation Index.

Learn about Apple's innovation strategy... How does Apple innovate, and what makes Apple the #1 innovative company in the world? Learn more...

Selected references:
Leading Business Innovation eBook & Resource Kit
Creativity and Innovation Best Practices
Creativity and Innovation Case Studies
The Innovation Index
Top 50 innovative companies in the world

The World's Most Respected Companies - Apple is #1

Show a Little Respect, Please...

"In our (Barron's) sixth annual survey, money managers indicated the degree to which they respect—or don’t—the world’s 100 largest companies (by total market value as of Dec. 31, 2009). The most-respected companies tend to retain that distinction, though some of the least-respected names might surprise you."

Top 10 Most Respected companies in the world, according to Barron's, include:
Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL), Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ), Procter & Gamble (NYSE: PG), IBM (NYSE: IBM), Berkshire Hathaway, Toyota Motor (Japan), McDonald’s (NYSE: MCD), Google (NASDAQ: GOOG), Cisco Systems (NASDAQ: CSCO) and Amazon.com (NASDAQ: AMZN).

There were more than 50 global companies that are highly respected (outside the U.S.A.). These include:
Toyota Motor, Honda Motor, Nestlé, Novartis, Bayer, GlaxoSmithKline, InBev, Roche Holding, BHP Billiton, Siemens, BASF, SAP, Samsung Electronics, Unilever, BP, Daimler, Sanofi-Aventis, LVMH Moet Hennessy LV, Royal Dutch Shell, L’Oréal, Banco Santander, Suncor Energy, Statoil, Petroleo Brasileiro, Commonwealth Bank of Australia, AstraZeneca, Telefonica, Westpac Banking, Vodafone Group, Credit Suisse, HSBC Holdings, Total, Rio Tinto, Deutsche Telekom, Vale S.A., Allianz, China Mobile, E.ON, NTT DoCoMo, BG Group, BNP Paribas, Anglo American, Electricite de France, ENI, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial, Banco Bilbao Vizcaya, GDF Suez, Reliance Industries, ArcelorMittal, France Telecom, Industrial & Commerce Bank of China, UniCredit, British American Tobacco, CNOOC, China Construction Bank, UBS, Sberbank Rossia, Rosneft and Gazprom.

The Complete List of Top 100 Most Respected Companies:

’10 ’09 Company Mean-Score HighlyRespect Respect SomewhatRespect Don’tRespect
1 4 Apple 4.22 67% 26% 4% 1%
2 1 Johnson & Johnson 4.07 59% 34% 6% 0%
3 3 Procter & Gamble 3.82 46% 47% 3% 1%
4 14 IBM 3.7 49% 37% 11% 1%
5 2 Berkshire Hathaway 3.69 54% 30% 11% 4%
6 8 Toyota Motor (Japan) 3.67 47% 33% 13% 1%
7 7 McDonald’s 3.67 41% 43% 10% 0%
8 23 Google 3.66 50% 34% 14% 1%
9 10 Cisco Systems 3.65 43% 39% 10% 1%
10 NR Amazon.com 3.55 40% 43% 9% 3%
11 NR Honda Motor (Japan) 3.52 36% 39% 13% 0%
12 5 Wal-Mart Stores 3.49 41% 41% 17% 0%
13 9 Coca-Cola 3.48 31% 54% 9% 0%
14 16 Intel 3.48 31% 56% 9% 0%
15 13 3M 3.48 33% 54% 7% 1%
16 19 Nestlé (Switzerland) 3.44 29% 53% 9% 0%
17 12 PepsiCo 3.43 31% 50% 11% 0%
18 6 Exxon Mobil 3.43 37% 50% 10% 3%
19 11 United Parcel Service 3.39 31% 50% 13% 0%
20 20 Walt Disney 3.29 29% 56% 11% 1%
21 26 JPMorgan Chase 3.26 39% 36% 20% 3%
22 22 Microsoft 3.26 36% 44% 14% 4%
23 24 United Technologies 3.25 29% 46% 17% 0%
24 15 Abbott Laboratories 3.25 27% 50% 16% 0%
25 17 Hewlett-Packard 3.18 29% 46% 17% 1%
26 27 Schlumberger 3.09 29% 43% 21% 1%
27 30 Novartis (Switzerland) 2.9 20% 46% 19% 3%
28 53 Qualcomm 2.81 17% 46% 26% 0%
29 25 Amgen 2.78 20% 44% 24% 3%
30 NR Goldman Sachs 2.76 39% 24% 19% 16%
31 45 Bayer (Germany) 2.69 14% 44% 24% 1%
32 42 Visa 2.69 19% 44% 27% 3%
33 32 Merck 2.64 16% 50% 27% 3%
34 NR Royal Bank of Canada 2.58 14% 43% 30% 1%
35 31 Chevron 2.55 14% 49% 27% 4%
36 38 GlaxoSmithKline (U.K.) 2.53 6% 56% 23% 1%
37 NR Anheuser-Busch InBev (Belgium) 2.48 17% 29% 36% 1%
38 41 Roche Holding (Switzerland) 2.47 11% 43% 29% 3%
39 39 Oracle 2.39 11% 49% 29% 6%
40 51 BHP Billiton (Australia) 2.39 10% 37% 31% 1%
41 64 Siemens (Germany) 2.38 6% 50% 23% 4%
42 NR BASF (Germany) 2.36 6% 49% 27% 3%
43 54 SAP (Germany) 2.34 13% 34% 31% 4%
44 48 Samsung Electronics (S. Korea) 2.33 9% 44% 29% 4%
45 35 Unilever (Netherlands) 2.33 10% 37% 31% 3%
46 28 ConocoPhillips 2.32 10% 40% 37% 1%
47 62 BP (U.K.) 2.28 7% 46% 37% 1%
48 NR Daimler (Germany) 2.28 16% 26% 37% 4%
49 21 Wells Fargo 2.24 11% 43% 37% 6%
50 67 Sanofi-Aventis (France) 2.13 4% 44% 33% 4%
51 47 Verizon Communications 2.1 10% 43% 33% 10%
52 NR LVMH Moet Hennessy LV (France) 2.05 3% 41% 33% 4%
53 61 Royal Dutch Shell (U.K.) 2 6% 34% 43% 3%
54 55 Pfizer 1.99 9% 40% 37% 10%
55 75 L’Oréal (France) 1.98 7% 33% 39% 6%
56 77 Banco Santander (Spain) 1.97 9% 33% 40% 7%
57 NR Suncor Energy (Canada) 1.97 9% 26% 46% 3%
58 66 Statoil (Norway) 1.95 3% 36% 36% 4%
59 57 Petroleo Brasileiro (Brazil) 1.93 6% 34% 40% 6%
60 NR Commonwealth Bank of Aus. (Australia) 1.93 1% 39% 36% 4%
61 52 AstraZeneca (U.K.) 1.9 3% 37% 37% 6%
62 60 Occidental Petroleum 1.89 9% 29% 43% 7%
63 59 Telefonica (Spain) 1.85 3% 31% 49% 1%
64 NR Westpac Banking (Australia) 1.82 3% 31% 41% 4%
65 70 Vodafone Group (U.K.) 1.8 1% 36% 44% 4%
66 NR Credit Suisse (Switzerland) 1.77 7% 27% 47% 7%
67 63 HSBC Holdings (U.K.) 1.75 9% 24% 51% 7%
68 65 Total (France) 1.73 4% 30% 44% 7%
69 56 Philip Morris Intl. 1.72 11% 26% 33% 17%
70 NR Rio Tinto (U.K.) 1.71 3% 30% 46% 6%
71 78 Deutsche Telekom (Germany) 1.7 3% 30% 41% 7%
72 NR Vale S.A. (Brazil) 1.68 3% 24% 50% 3%
73 83 Allianz (Germany) 1.67 3% 27% 46% 6%
74 43 General Electric 1.64 11% 29% 39% 20%
75 68 China Mobile (China) 1.58 4% 27% 41% 11%
76 73 E.ON (Germany) 1.56 1% 23% 49% 4%
77 80 NTT DoCoMo (Japan) 1.55 1% 24% 47% 6%
78 NR BG Group (U.K.)* 1.54 3% 20% 46% 6%
79 NR BNP Paribas (France) 1.52 3% 24% 40% 10%
80 NR Anglo American (U.K.) 1.48 0% 21% 53% 3%
81 91 Electricite de France (France) 1.43 0% 20% 57% 3%
82 87 ENI (Italy) 1.41 0% 21% 50% 6%
83 82 Mitsubishi UFJ Financial (Japan) 1.39 0% 24% 49% 9%
84 58 AT&T 1.38 4% 26% 51% 16%
85 88 Banco Bilbao Vizcaya (Spain) 1.36 1% 19% 51% 7%
86 94 GDF Suez (France) 1.33 1% 21% 43% 11%
87 92 Reliance Inds. (India) 1.29 0% 20% 51% 9%
88 NR ArcelorMittal (France) 1.21 0% 20% 49% 11%
89 90 France Telecom (France) 1.18 1% 14% 56% 10%
90 96 Indust. & Commer. Bank of China (China) 1.11 0% 21% 37% 17%
91 NR UniCredit (Italy) 1.11 0% 11% 59% 7%
92 89 British Amer. Tobacco (U.K.) 1.11 3% 17% 41% 19%
93 98 Bank of America 1.06 6% 19% 44% 27%
94 93 CNOOC (China) 1.04 3% 14% 44% 19%
95 97 China Construction Bank (China) 1 0% 19% 44% 19%
96 99 UBS (Switzerland) 0.93 4% 16% 39% 27%
97 NR Sberbank Rossia (Russia) 0.4 0% 6% 41% 29%
98 NR Rosneft (Russia) 0.32 0% 7% 36% 33%
99 100 Gazprom (Russia) 0.07 0% 4% 36% 43%
100 NR Citigroup -0.21 0% 4% 30% 63%

NR=Not Ranked.
Source: Barron's

"John Cregan, veteran money manager at Hotchkiss Associates, a unit of United Capital Financial Advisers, says he admires Apple because the company "is at the top of the list of seeing around corners. They aren't out there trying to find out what their customers want, but saying rather, 'Look at this advancement in technology. It enables us to do this. You might not want it yet or know what to do with it, but you will want it and we are going to build it."

Learn about Apple's innovation strategy... How does Apple innovate, and what makes it the #1 innovative company in the world? Learn more...

Selected references:
Leading eBook on Creativity and Innovation in Business
Creativity and Innovation Best Practices
Creativity and Innovation Case Studies
The Innovation Index
Top 50 innovative companies in the world

References:
Barron's: http://online.barrons.com/article/SB126601896024845345.html

BOOT eyefortravel interview: search, mobile, social networking, innovation, Asia and more part 2

Part 2 of pre-conference interview with with Ritesh Guptaof eyefortravel in the lead up to the TDS conference in Singapore April 28 & 29. Part 1 here.

Question - Can you provide an insight into how does search differ for mobile phones vis-a-vis PC? What according to you are the striking differences?

BOOT - The easy answer is location. A phone knows so much more about your current location than a PC. This gives mobile a huge advantage over PC search in servicing an immediate requirement. But there are challenges here too. A mobile can assume too much about a location. Just because I am travelling in Tokyo does not mean that I want the answer to the question to be in Japanese. The other challenge for mobile is that the platforms are still not uniform in display. Thankfully we are down to a much smaller list of mobile browsers/operating systems that previously but still there are differences between iphone, windows mobile, blackberry, palm and symbian which call challenges in display. This is where apps come in as content providers are trying to get around the browser and device compatibility by using apps to control display and information management to consumers.

Question - The progression of technology and innovation in the travel industry continues at a quickening pace and Asian countries are closing the gap on their western counterparts. What according to have been the major developments in this context in Asia?

BOOT - Innovation is always driven by local requirements and demand patterns. Therefore there are examples across Asia of markets driving product development well ahead of the US or Europe. India leads the world in online bus ticket sales and low cost carrier and traditional carrier display integration. Japan leads the world in online hotel bookings via mobile phones. China leads the world in call centre same day hotel bookings. The mistake many make in planning for innovation is to look to the technology first rather than the business need. As I discussed in this post the secret to innovation is as much about timing, social readiness and execution as it is about a great technology idea. Therefore the major development in Asia that is driving innovation is not a technology one it is a attitudinal shift and market maturity. A display of confidence within the Asian travel industry that dedicated market specific solutions can be put together to target customer needs rather than simply copying what the global OTAs are doing in Europe and America.

Question - What are you most looking forward to at TDS Asia? Who are you most looking forward to meeting at the event?

BOOT - Conferences are always about people watching and meeting. That is what I am looking forward to. The best person you meet at a good conference is the person you weren't expecting to meet. Someone you did not know that you needed to know - if you know what I mean :).

BOOT eyefortravel interview: search, mobile, social networking, innovation, Asia and more part 1

I have just completed an email interview with Ritesh Guptaof eyefortravel in the lead up to the TDS conference in Singapore April 28 & 29. Here is part 1 of our exchange (part 2 here).

Question - Do you think predicting user preferences is the biggest unsolved problem in online travel? How do you assess the integration of social search into online travel?

BOOT - I am a strong believer that all companies in online travel should be focusing on understanding users and working on predictive and recommendation engines. But it is a mistake to come at this from just a user preference angle. The trap that companies are falling into is thinking that consumers are still asking "closed" questions. Questions that can be answered with an easy or direct response. Questions like "how much for a flight to new york?, "which hotel should I stay in in Rome?". These are the questions consumers asked for the first 15 years of online travel. Now consumers are also asking open ended questions like "where should I go next?, "what is a good place to go this weekend?". Questions that require a more detailed answer and therefore a very detailed understanding of not only the preferences of the user but also the relationship between those preferences and the destinations available and the different versions of the individual that is searching (my concept of EveryYou). Social networking's role in this is the role that word of mouth has always played in marketing and travel purchases. A force that can be instrumental in a consumer's purchase decision which can be influenced, prodded, supported but never controlled. The difference between Social Networking marketing and word of mouth marketing is just speed. Social network is word of mouth at the speed of light.

Question - Today Google's algorithms are still quite a bit of a black box for professional search marketers. The semantic web should make it more efficient to create and manage online campaigns, because there will be less left to algorithmic interpretation. How do you assess this viewpoint?

BOOT - Google has won search - game over. There are countries were they are weaker (Japan, Korea, China for example) and products where they are weaker (local search and business listings for example) but let's not kid ourselves about who has won search. That said, "old search" is about providing a single destination as an answer to a question. Regardless of the search term, Google only presents a list of single answer destinations. If an answer to the search request is found through information from a combination of different websites then Google (or any search site for that matter) do not have the answer. The other constraint on Google and old search is the limited scope for incorporating and merging the latest up to date with results with older more trusted results. Google has been experimenting with incorporating real time search in their results (example here) but they have not yet figured out how to establish authority in real time search or change the display to be more than an never ending stream of updated information. The Semantic web should be part of the solution here but I still feel we are a while away from implementation because we have not figured out new rules for authority and new methods for display. Maybe Google have but there are just not saying yet!

Question - Google, which last year had introduced a new experiment on Google Labs called Google Social Search, has added a social element to Google Images. With Social Search, Google finds relevant public content from your friends and contacts and highlights it for you at the bottom of your search results. What is going to be the next big thing or trend in social search engine marketing?

BOOT - If you agree with my comments about that marketing of social networking is just like marketing through word of mouth but at the speed of light then the next big things in social network marketing are finding ways to adjust word of mouth marketing to a faster/instantaneous medium. The basics of word of mouth market are trust, interest and relevance. For a consumer to be prepared to share a product, idea, story, service etc with a friend they have to trust the source, be interested in the item/thing and think that it is relevant to others in their circle. Social network marketers need to have these three human elements at the centre of each campaign. The mistake that I see so often is jumping to a technological solution to marketing on social networking rather than the human elements. We can see this in the constant screw ups at Facebook with privacy as they launch new privacy crushing rules and products to give marketers access to customer data. My advice is to turn to the technology second and the human elements first. Establish trust then make something relevant and interesting. If you do, consumers will follow. The final thing to remember as a marketer in social networks - and the 21st century for that matter - is to accept that you have limited control over what your customers will say about your brand. The response to that lack of control is communication and discussion (ie engagement) not defamation, litigation and IP laws (ie stupidity).

Question - This year, we have already seen a couple of significant moves from Apple and Google towards mobile advertising. How do you foresee the impact on search and social media via mobile phones on the travel industry?

BOOT- Up until recently I have been a mobile denier. Mainly because every year since 2000 has been THE year that mobile would take over PC as the place for online action. Google's purchase of AdMob is the turning point. Not because when Google does something it means we have to take a trend seriously but because it means we know have non-transactional revenue streams for mobile activity. The problem for mobile has been that people stop at the credit card entry point. For a variety of reasons people that are completely comfortable putting their cc number into a PC or giving it to a bartender covered in tats and piercing in the off-line world have hesitated when asked to give it to a mobile phone. With Google betting on mobile advertising we have a biz model outline. A means for content and transactional companies to make money in mobile. That is the step that has been needed - more that the continued roll out of smart phone technology and more than the expansion of social networks.

more in part 2

In a day when everyone is talking Apple have a look at Google

Today is the day a half laptop, half smart-phone, all PR blitz shoved the State of the Union off the front page and sent Apple fan boys and girls running for their credit cards. The iPad has dominated the twitointerblogsphere all day. Desperately looking for a different angle on the story I was interested to look at the Google.com.au search results for "ipad". Below is a screen shot. Three very interesting things you can see from it.

1. Look at who is bidding on the term ipad. Two competing news outlets have bid on the term and are paying Google to drive traffic to news stories about the ipad. This is interesting first because I have not heard of a news company buying keywords before. Secondly the speed in which they put together the campaign. Presumably it was planned ahead of time and executed very early Sydney time.

2. Look at what is dominating the search results. The middle area is not links to two or three static websites. Instead there is a scrolling twitter feed updating every part second without the site having to refresh. True real time search integration. I saw this a few weeks ago for the first time with the "latest result" feed matching those search terms trending high on twitter. I like it but missing is the authority element to help determine which tweets/real time updates should be read.

3. Look at who is number one for search results and loving the traffic they are getting. Some South Australian property developer and owner of the ipad apartment complex in Adelaide is having the traffic day of the life as owners of ipad.com.au.

Take a look - screenshot below. Another change in the search industry hot on the heals of a hardware revolution.

2010 Predictions: The BOOT on what to expect for 2010 in the online travel industry

You think 2009 was full of surprises. Well fasten your safety belts, lock in the tray table and get ready for the turbulence, change and excitement that I expect 2010 to bring.

Here we go - I have five predictions for 2010 (two of them drawn from my contribution to the Tnooz post "Tnooz predictions for 2010"):

1. The non-refundable not enough: 2009 was the year of the deal. Lastminute specials returned and ADR/Ave ticket price fell through the floor, past the basement and almost reached magma. But the main (maybe the only) weapon in the 2009 deal war was the non-refundable. I predict that to win round two of the deal smackdown will require suppliers and intermediaries to come up with something more creative that just non-refundables The non-refundable is successful in driving demand while protecting "normal" pricing (ie BAR). But it is a crude weapon - targeting only those with no scope for a change in plans. Driving demand in 2010 will mean finding additional market segments. Which in turn will require more creativity and subtlety in pricing and deal structures than afforded by the non-refundable. Jeremy Philips in a review on WSJ.com of the book "Priceless" by William Poundstone ran an interesting quote that summarises the prediction here. As Robert Crandall, a former CEO of American Airlines, has said: "If I have 2,000 customers on a given route and 400 different prices, I'm obviously short 1,600.";
2. Year of the app: mobile may finally be here as a force in online travel but in 2010 the action will be in "apps" not phones. By app, I mean a piece of software designed to perform a function where the function is stand alone but can only exist as part of an operational eco-system. I am not thinking just iPhone here. Though the numbers are extraordinary. On March 27 2008 Apple launched its SDK to the public. Just eighteen months later (Nov 4) they announced more than 100,000 apps available for the iPhone and more than 2 billion downloads. But this is only part of the app story. On May 24 2007 Facebook opened up its platform for third party application development. On their stats page (checked 3 Jan 2010) they are claiming 500,000 apps. It does not stop at smart phones and social networks- HP have launched a printer with an interface and app store. The easy part of this prediction is to say that app numbers will grow again both in number (they will more than double in 2010) and in platform (more sites and more phones launching more of them). The real prediction is that I think the app trend equals a change in how web services are accessed. While not the death of the browser, the rise of the app is a sign that the browser is no longer an essential part of the Internet experience. Further proof that we have left the Web 1 era that defined web success through website stickiness and are well into the Web 2 world of syndication being the success measure. That confining your internet viewership plans to the computer and browser is a doomed strategy;
3. New marketing measurement metrics will emerge: The very mature online media and advertising world has settled into a comfortable metric duopoly of clicks and page views. Measuring audience reach and advertiser value by either the number of clicks generated or pages views. I predict for 2010 that we will see a new metric emerge. Not sure what it will be but it is clear to me that the market is looking for a measure of engagement rather than traffic. A way of showing marketers that consumers have taken in a brand message not just clicked on a link or maybe glanced at a flashing 468x60. The portals have had behavioural targeting technology for more than two years (Yahoo! has Blue Lithium, AOL has Tacoda) and Google is looking for the Next Big Thing to be video advertising (read more in interview with Rob Torres of Google reported on Tnooz). These are clear indicators of the need for a new metric;
   
4. Consolidation in the sector (surely!). This is a left over prediction from 2009. The conditions in the year of the GFC seemed perfect for consolidation. Stock prices were depressed, cost cutting acceptable and appetite for organically funded expansion low. But we saw virtually nothing that could be called a “big deal”. There was deal activity but at the lower end such as through regional tuck-ins (ie Travelocity buying Travelguru, and Ctrip buying EZtravel), small local deals (ie Wotif buying GoDo) and constant content site acquisition by TripAdvisor. With bankers chasing bonuses and companies chasing growth in 2010, I expect to see some consolidation in the big end of online travel town (from Tnooz post); and
   
5. Recommendations as the future of online travel: Search – as a means for customers finding what they want in online travel – is no longer as effective in 2009 as it was in 2005. Two causes – the explosion of content through the UGC revolution and consumers desire to seek answers to open ended questions (ie where should I go next) that are not easily answered by a search model based on taking you to one site. 2010 will see even more investment by start ups and established companies on different ways of searching and on methodologies for recommending. The long term future is the ability to generate a recommendation of one based on the individuals unique combination of desires, needs and interests of an individual at a particular point in time (EveryYou). The 2010 future is increased profiling, increased data collection and even more start up activity around search and discovery (from Tnooz post).

Close the door, buckle up, it is time to push back and take off. It is 2010 and the BOOT is back.

If you are interested - check out my 2009 predictions

thanks to pfala for the photo via flickr

Google’s Next Big Thing – Killing off the TV media business. More from interview with Rob Torres at PhoCusWright

Google hangs over every online industry conference. Their ability to deliver and take away traffic is unmatched. I have even argued that being Google friendly has overtaken being consumer friendly as the product development test for website design team

At this year's PhoCusWright conference TripAdvisor's Steve Kaufer said in jest "darn it everyone starts at Google, I want them to start at TripAdvisor". Google’s traffic dominance is here for so long as the search box is the number one starting point.

It was with this background Google's MD of Travel Rob Torres and YouTube's CMO Suzie Reider took the Center Stage of PhoCusWright to pitch the "Next Big Idea".

In a recent Tnooz post I included my notes from a post presentation 1:1 with Torres. In this post I will share my thoughts on the presentation itself.

The core of the next big thing from Google is actually close to the old big thing. Google was appealing to the audience and online marketeers to take advantage of the video assets of Google, the power of video as an advertising medium and (as Torres put it) to "stop thinking about [Google for] internet demand capture and start thinking about [Google as] a driver of brand awareness”. Put another way - use Google and use online video as brand building marketing channels rather than just looking for the direct marketing response metrics that has made search so powerful. While new for Google, the online marketer and media channel mix planner this is a clear move against old media- namely the TV advertising market. It is like a declaration of war by Google against TV stations with an air of "anything you can do I can do better".

Torres and Reider went on to describe a number of the new advertising and content products that were available in this shift. Not only is this a big challenge that Google is issuing to the TV industry (especially free to air), it is a big shift in the Google advertising mindset. In our interview later Torres stressed his belief that the dramatically lower CPM rates for online video advertising as against TV made TV ad spend an “ego buy” rather than a rational marketing decision. That said, he admitted that number of views is still the best measurement metric for online video advertising.

I think this is the right move for Google but will be full of challenges. They have the world’s most powerful online video asset and with PPC costs escalating they need to change the marketer’s mindset to one of brand over direct response. They have the reach and they have the video. But success will depend on providing a more advance measure for audience engagement than ratings or views. For marketers to make the switch from viewing search and online video as direct channel to a brand building channel they are going to need a prove brand growth. The tradditional media apporach of ratings and demographics will not be enough for the sales and data hungry online marketing executive. Google will need to develop a new and more detailed mechanism for proving the value of a view.

As a coda to this post - here is an extract of the stats quoted during the presentation:

• Visits to travel sites up 12%
• On average people 9 research session before bookings. Visiting 20.3 sites
• 56% of frequent travellers visit video sites
• 77% of internet users consume video (not sure how this works with above)
• 13% of [online?] travellers have uploaded a video
• 20 hours of video uploaded every minute to YT
• 450mm – size of YT monthly audience
• YT has 5000+ premium content partners (Nat Geo). They only serve adds on premium content providers
• 40mm impressions per day on YT
• 1 in 4 Internet users visit YT each month

Did not say where or how generated statistics.

1:1 interview with Rob Torres is here

Tnooz: Rob Torres 1:1 at PhoCusWright

Interview I conducted with Google's Travel MD Rob Torres at PhoCusWright has just gone live at Tnooz. We discuss online video, social media in the search stream, mobile and more. Here is the link for 1:1 with Rob at PCW.

"Smarter" Travel search vs profiling and recommending at the PhoCusWright Innovation Summit

I have been reflecting back on the PhoCusWright Travel Innovation Summit. At this event 33 companies (start ups, established companies and entrepreneurs with ideas) pitched new products seeking fame and recognition for their innovation. The final four will go through the rest of the conference competing for the Travel Innovation Summit winner prize.

At the Summit a series of companies presented on new ways to do online travel search.

Goby presented on a travel search system with three questions to generate search - what, where, when. Aim is to present a more targeted and consolidated results rather than the site list that come from a Google search.

Exalead presented on a search platform that can be used to provide other companies with a search engine with profile saving metrics.

Planetism the first alpha of the presentation (no site live). Comes to search from a budget perspective (see my discussion on that here). You enter dates and budget and then are presented with a list of options to refine and select.

I have also interviewed a number of search and discovery sites - most recently Joobili.

The reason why people are trying to innovate so much in search is that the current search process (type question into Google and press search) was designed to support closed answer questions such as "cheap flights to New York" and "Hotels near the Opera House". Questions where a single site can provide a single answer. This approach is no longer sufficient as it does not answer open ended questions that people are now asking such as "where should I go next", "I have to get away this weekend, what's good and cheap". Answers to these questions will not be found on one single site. They can only be answered by bringing together information and content from more than one place.

My recommendation to the above companies and others trying to innovate in search is to be very careful betting the business on search innovation and make sure you spend time on recommendation and inspiration. The step beyond search. The proactive approach to search. A focus on pure search brings you head to head with Google and might risk missing the real next step.

I am convinced that the answer to the problem matching the excessive amount of content available and the desire for answers to open ended questions is not to reinvent pure search. Instead I think innovators and other online travel companies should focus on developing processes for profiling and recommending.

What do you think? Is there room for search innovation outside Google and Kayak like meta-search companies? Should start-ups steer clear of search?

PS - if you would like to see my pick for the top 4 click here.

Google bought AdMob, Norm was right, the BOOT was wrong - time to eat humble pie

In my predictions for 2009 (back in January) I said the following

"2009 will not be the year of mobile for the travel industry: Every year since 2000 we have been talking about the mobile revolution in online travel. This year I rejoined that chorus of mobile revolution fan boys while at PhoCusWright in LA. With the Global Financial Crisis (I am told there is even an acronym for this - GFC) in full swing I think the larger players will pull back from their mobile plans and focus on core products, costs control and customer loyalty. Mobile will have to wait until 2010; and"

Many disagreed including Norm Rose, arguing that the proliferation of smart phones and mobile apps would prove me wrong. But I would not be talked out of it. In September I reaffirmed by prediction saying

" The argument in favour of my prediction is that bookings of travel via mobile phones apps (outside of Korea and Japan) are still very small and arguably inconsequential to the $150+ billion online travel industry. "

Here we are in November and I was looking forward to debating my position with Norm at PhoCusWright next week. But with barely a week to go before seeing Norm in Orlando, Google won the debate for him by buying AdMob for $750 million. AdMob is/was a Sequoia backed mobile display advertising platform.

This means that Google's third largest acquisition ever (after YouTube and DoubleClick) is of a company with maybe $40mm in revenue focused on putting adverts on iPhones, Android phones, smartphones etc. We now have a revenue model and distribution for advertising on the phone. Add that to the travel app bonanza on iTunes and elsewhere, the levels of smartphone penetration, augmented reality and more.

You got me Norm. I concede. Google has closed out the year with a big M&A deal proving that 2009 is indeed a year for Mobile. See you in Orlando for a piece of humble pie.

More on the deal read these two TechCrunch posts

• Google Acquires AdMob For $750 Million; and
• AdMob Is “Approaching $100 Million” In Revenues. Google Thinks It Can Be Billions

thanks to smiteme for the pie photo

Bing Maps: Helping you find the middle of nowhere whether you want it or not

Bing was supposed to be the new black. Bing + Yahoo! search deal + Farecast integration + new mapping was supposed to = a revolution in search engines for Microsoft (excuse me.. not a search engine.. a discovery engine). For that all to work, the mapping has to work. Especially in travel. When people search for information on locations they need to be given very accurate mapping information on where the location is..well...located.

I have been house hunting recently and "accidentally" used an integrated Bing Maps feature on Internet Explorer. It failed miserably...in an entertaining way.

Here are the screen shots that tell the story. Shot 1 - the house in 138 Underwood St Padding (suburb of Sydney just next to downtown business region) that I was looking at and me highlighting the address and selecting map with Live Search/Bing. Shot 2 - the result. No only is the mapping result nowhere near Paddington, it is some 4,000 kilometres away on an Aboriginal reserve in the North West corner of Australia. In other words...somewhere near the middle of nowhere (with all due respect to the people who live there).

Shot 1 - me doing the search



Shot 2 - the result. We now know where the middle of nowhere actually is.
Described by Bing as "138, Aboriginal Land, Western Australia". Other than the number 138 there is nothing in common with the address I was searching for


Let me put shot 2 into perspective with Shot 3 showing how far away this is from the actual location of Underwood St Paddington

Shot 3 - how far apart the locations are


Think this is a one off? I tried the same for a property in another part of Underwood st Paddington (this time number 14 not number 138) Shot 4 is the result. At least this time in Sydney but still some 30-40kms away and under than the number 14 - nothing in common with what I searched.

Shot 4 - closer but still not close enough
Showing 14 Underwood st Paddington as 14 Bilgola St Newport


If Bing wants any chance at fighting Google, Kayak or the OTAs in travel search they will have to do dramatically better than this in the mapping area.

Autoblog Phenomenon for Scooping Dollar on the Internet

Various ways to do the netter scooped income online via the Internet, ranging from legal ways of belonging to the white hat to the ways that smelled porn gray and black hat.

There is a method which is quite controversial in the internet, why would I say controversial? because until now this method is still floating in the sense of the legality many say should be done this way but many are saying this is how not to do and contains a myriad of risks if it did ... the way that is Autoblog.

Autoblog as the name suggests is a way to create a blog run automatically, in the sense that blogs are going to get the content / content / automatic writing within the time allowed without the owner of the blog update, as for example by using WordPress FeedWordpress + + plugin and plugin Akismet -Other plugins that support the blog can be easily updated automatically without the need for the intervention of the blog owner or in other words pairs and leave!

By using this autoblog blog update frequency so it is faster and of course search engines such as Google likes it so you can get a lot of traffic from search engines is + not to mention links and blogs pingback taken from the article, well if you have many visitors the blog can get a lot of benefits if the blog is in-Monetizing the installed such as ads from Google Adsense, Adbrite, Affiliate, etc. that can automatically generate dollars every day:)

But the recent sharp autoblog's doubtful that even the blog owner to use the 'dirty' it was a loss why?

- Send a query to Google's continuous then your blog can be detected as a spam blog and blog or even your ip can than by Google.

- Autoblog generally take content from other blogs through rss feeds, this way the chance of producing duplicate content even though you have to install additional plugins to handle it but still difficult to avoid duplicate content from rss feeds.

- Owner Blog will sooner or later find out that the material taken their blogs, so if this happens the blog owner may be reported to Google in order to help your blog to infringe copyright reasons even your provider can help you with a reason to burden the server and copyright infringement.

- Many netter who feel harmed by this method, so the bloggers can complain this autoblog, one of them through Google Webmaster Tool.

- For those of you who put Adsense & Adbrite etc in the autoblog blog account then you have chance to get tires too.

Some of the above based on my own experience and there are also those who came from the experience blogger friends in various forums about this autoblog.

Make a useful blog! no blog trash! and what are you doing still using this old-fashioned way anymore? Khan is way more powerful than autoblog even safe and legal.

Confirmed - Google is doing delayed keyword matching in paid search results

Wrote a post last week wondering why I was seeing sponsored links based on previous search results on Google. I suggested that one possibility was that the

" 'broad match' bidding advertisers are doing is now getting more and more broad in terms of keyword matching and maybe even session time

This has been confirmed by Google in this AdWords Help page. Here is the relevant text.

II. How does this feature work?

This feature is an enhancement of broad match. It works by generating similar terms for each search query based on the content of the current query and, if deemed relevant, the previous queries in a user's search session. Your ad will potentially show if one of your broad-matched keywords matches any of these similar terms.

In other words Google is entering behaviour targeting and search profiling. For logged in users it is clear that no set of search results will be the same.

Thanks to "Kate" for sending through the link.

Is Google doing keyword memory and delayed paid search responses (or just broken)? What do Cairo and Machu Picchu have in common?

'I was doing some random keyword searching on Google this afternoon. Looking up a series of destinations with the search lead in of "hotels in". I noticed a pattern emerging that I had not seen before. Sponsored search results for one destination stayed in the search results for a second destination. I will be specific. First I searched"hotels in Dubai, then "hotels in Cairo". Then I searched "hotels in Machu Picchu". Then I searched just "hotels". In the results for Machu Picchu there appeared sponsored links for Cairo and Dubai (see screen shots below). For the supposedly generic results of "hotels" there appeared Sydney results and Cairo results. Sydney results makes sense as that is where I am but Cairo does not.

I am not sure what this means. One possibility is that Google is convinced that I continue to be interested in Cairo despite having entered other search terms. That (through me being logged in) it has run some algorithm on my past searches and Cairo comes up again and again. The other possibility is that the "broad match" bidding advertisers are doing is now getting more and more broad in terms of keyword matching and maybe even session time. Or - Google is busted. If the former options then the matching that Google is doing is not right as I do not have a history of searching for Cairo hotels. But is shows that Google is experimenting with behavioural targeting techniques. If the latter option (Google is busted) then a lot of advertisers are going to be very unhappy about the click costs that result.

Do you know what is going on here?

UPDATE - GOOGLE have confirmed that is part of broad matching.

Here are the screen shots

Results for "Hotels in Cairo". Sponsored results all make sense

"Hotels in Machu Picchu" with Dubai and Cairo results

Results for "Hotels" with Sydney and Cairo results

Blogging For Money With Google Blogger

By Luis Galarza - Internet Marketing & Trends.

Stop Searching Here Is A Complete Resource Box With All The Tools You Need To Make Better Google Blogger or Blogspot Blogs!...

By now a lot of online entrepreneurs know that blogging is a must when marketing a small home base business on the Internet, it help you in so many ways, here a few of the benefits you get for blogging:

- Boost your SEO efforts.

- Can have you rank more than one site on search results.

- It help you improve position on search results.

- It help you communicate with potential customers in a personal way.

- Ease your content syndication efforts.

- Help you gain instant feedback from your audience.

- Open the doors to new business networking relationships.

- It give you another stream of income.

- Help you expose your brand faster to a target market.

- Increase your level of web authority in your niche.

- And much more!

The fact is that having a blog can help you and your business expand your marketing reach and exposure to a wider audience, an audience that can become a free source of market data information that can be use to improve your products or offerings and can give you ideas for new ones.

If you don't know how to set up your first Blogger blog, please watch this video that will explain step-by-step how to open your first account and start a blog:



Hope the video was easy to understand, if not please don't hesitate to leave me a comment with your questions or tweet me at @LuisGalarza.



The Truth!

Now, I know many top Internet marketing gurus are telling you, that to make money online you need to have a WordPress blog, with you own domain name, and it needs to be host on a reliable hosting service... All those things are true and false. Yes, you need all that if you want to be like them and turn into a social media or social network's celebrity, the problem there is that it takes more time to make sales, plus you need a lot of social traffic to be able to sell sponsorships at a good price, a price that will pay your rent or mortgage. Why? Because social traffic have the lowest conversion rates for Google Adsense and Affiliate marketing.

Don't get me wrong, the use of strategic web 2.0 or social media marketing is very important to build



So, How Can You Profit From Blogger Blogs?

Anybody can make money with a blogspot blog as soon you concentrate in getting traffic from sources that have the best conversion rates, and those sources are the "Search Engines"! So, if you want to make money online you need to focus your marketing efforts on SEO (Search Engine Optimization)... Here are 22 SEO tips for blogger blogspot blogs to get started!

Yep! That's it!...

I know you was expecting a huge answer, but that truth is that organic search traffic and pay-per-click (PPC) advertisement generates sales, because you are visits from people that are looking specific what you are offering or what you are writing about!

On my next article I going to address the steps you need to take to ensure the success of your blogging venture. Now this post is for beginners or newbies, I will get into more advanced tactics as in my next posts.

To get unlimited advice "blogging for profits" visit the IE Club.

Recommended Resources.

- Blogger For Dummies.
- Blogging To The Bank 3.0.

- Insider Secrets To Marketing Your Business Online.
- Search Marketing Lab.

TIP: Before running and open your first account you need to make sure that you follow what you love or what you have interest in. Then use a keyword research tool to find profitable niches or hot topics that can be the main focus of your blog or sub-topics to write about.

To your success,

Luis Galarza, Internet Marketing Consultant In Massachusetts.

Blerp Me

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AirAsia bidding for hotel words in Google - Low Cost Carrier embracing quasi-OTA status

Back in December I re-posted a story from 2007 (and one of my original tips from the t-list posts) that contained my three recommendations for airlines that were winning with supplier direct online on how they can improve their online offering.

One of the recommendations was to " invest in being a true online hotel (land) business". We has seen strides from the low cost carriers in this first (for example Easyjet's seamless packaging integration). Now I have seen another next step from a low cost carrier - reports have come in of KL based AirAsia have been bidding on hotel based keywords on Google. In effect competing head to head with online travel agents, hotel only intermediaries and hotel suppliers on hotel sales rather than waiting for air cross sell to provide ancillary revenue.

This has been hard for me to replicate in a screenshot to show you as it looks like they are currently targeting certain Asian IP addresses (ie customers) and not yet targeting Australia. John Fearon of Asiarooms sent me through this shot from an Alexa search he was doing. You can clearly see AirAsia targeting Bangkok hotels along side Booking.com and others. It is the second time Fearon has spotted AirAisa actively promoting hotels.

I applaud this move by AirAsia. It is consistent with there "we do want we want and love to break the rules" brand message and it embraces my rules for growing airline online share. That said as an online hotel player is gives me the willies. Anyone else seen more examples of AirAsia or other airlines bidding for hotel words to support their ancillary business.?

thanks for the tip John.

Want to know how consumers search for Travel - well NY times has a few tips

Interesting piece here from the New York Times' "Frugal Traveler" called "Research: The Travller's Best Friend". Is an article where the Frugal Traveler gives their tips and tricks to NY Times readers on which sites to use to research, book and manage a trip. There will be no surprises for you the experienced online travel user/abuser but it does provider some useful insight into the advice the the mainstream media is giving the online consumer on where to look and book.

No blogs were mentioned. Sites getting a mention include:

• Google;
• Luxe Series of guide books;
• Kayak
• SeatGuru;
• Dealbase;
• TripAdvisor (but not in a good way);
• Craigslist;
• TripIt;
• Facebook;
• Couchsurfing;
• Oanda; and
• Flight 001 travel store

Also some old school recommendations to check out books.

Thanks for Madame BOOT for sending through the link.

Thanks to Kristina B for the fantastic image

"The AsiaRooms of 2009 is not the AsiaRooms of 2005": Interview with John Fearon, AsiaRooms Head of Marketing

AsiaRooms is one of the region's largest online hotel retailers. With 81, 908 hotels and counting (according to the site today) and a parent company that is the largest travel company in Europe (TUI), AsiaRooms is clearly a player that the BOOT should be paying attention to. Historically the company has made this hard as it has been very secretive with its numbers and plans and (to be frank) was not a company we wanted to pay attention to. Prior to TUI buying the company, AsiaRooms built up an unwanted reputation on online customer care forums for complaints and among the trade for scoffing at rate parity and associated price guarantees. Rumours of wholesale group rates being market up $5 and sold online became the standard trade fair post-session beer story when AsiaRooms came up in the conversation. The brand buzz was all bad. In fact the customer and industry complaint forums became the only source for profile information on the secretive company.

John Fearon the (relatively) new Head of Marketing for the Pattaya based AsiaRooms is determined to change all that. Determined to build on the TUI brand and infrastructure support to change the market perception of AsiaRooms and to bring the company out from behind the secrecy curtain. As John told me “we are not the AsiaRooms of 2005”. I had a chance this week to (virtually) sit down with Fearon and hear his plans for changing the reputation of AsiaRooms, overhauling their marketing plans, ditching meta-search and taking on all comers in a press to be number one in Asia.

In marketing, John's first target is to change the approach to paid search marketing. SEM and SEO is the frontier that John believes will sort out the winners from the losers in Asia (I agree). Is also the place he was happy to share numbers and metrics with me. After only three months of work Fearon is claiming to have doubled the amount of business coming form the search engines on the same level of spend. Not much of a metric to share but an indication of his marketing plans. He had a lot less praise for and desire to continue to invest in meta-search. Has pulled AsiaRooms out of Kayak and has no plans to go with hotelscombined. For the moment is sticking with Wego but as general rule does not believe that meta-search builds a brand or helps the business. Claims it forces you into “killing yourself” on pricing at the expense of the consumer experience. This is an interesting point. I am working on a separate post on my thoughts on the meta-search model but from what I am seeing the arbitrage gap (difference between price meta-search players buy traffic from Google and sell it to suppliers) is narrowing.

In supply the plan is to continue to gain access to cheap inventory - but with less (he did not say none) of the rate rule breaking.

Asia is a tough place to play but Fearon is not worried. AsiaRooms claims that profitability and support from the rest of the TUI nline Destination Services (ODS) group will prove another important factor. [FYI the TUI ODA group includes the UK based LateRooms and Spanish Hotelopia].

They will need more than good paid search plans and mothership support to make it in this market. Fearon says he is aware of this, especially with the Global F’n Crisis hitting Asia hard. He predicts the GFC will bring down a number of smaller brands (we off the record speculated which ones). But for Fearon this is the opportunity to bring AsiaRooms out and take competitors head-on. He has not been impressed by any of the marketing activities of competitors from the big four (Expedia, Orbitz, Travelocity and Priceline). "There is nothing they have done that made me say Wow".

Was interesting to finally hear a (confident) voice from AsiaRooms and one not afraid to admit to the reputation. He acknowledged that AsiaRooms broke a lot of the pricing rules in the past (and maybe that they still do) but is now looking to invest in brand and customer satisfaction (heck they even have a facebook fan page now!).

So what do you think? The consumer forums still don’t paint a pretty picture for AsiaRooms but the company is claiming a lot of changes since 2005. Either way the Asian online travel market war has moved to a different level.