Skyscanner tries one method of pushing search results into Facebook

Came across a quirky feature on the new Skyscanner site this morning when, inevitably, we were looking at Ryanair fares on other websites.

Underneath the search results there is a small Facebook logo titled "Brag about this flight on Facebook".

Click on the logo and, if you are logged into the ominpresent social network, a new window appears in Facebook with a message already set up, allowing members to add the results onto their profile page or send as a direct message to friends.

Nice idea and probably being done elsewhere. It was the subtlety of it, ironically, which got it noticed in our case.

Facebook better watch out though. It doesn't want to be added to The List.

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

300 members - and no advertising

We have written in the past about the scepticism surrounding the use of social networking sites for branding.

Ian McCaig of Lastminute.com is a passionate supporter of this point-of-view.

But I have just realised that Travolution has just attracted its 300th member to its Facebook group.

This is with no marketing at all - just a mention on the blog last year!

A free and easy presence.


If you want to join, go to the page and become a member.

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Are social network advertisers barking up the wrong tree?

Our latest column in Travel Weekly:

For many people in the industry there remains a big question mark over the value of using social networks to reach potential consumers.

At Travolution we have been unashamedly guilty of talking up the benefits of throwing increasingly scant resources at sites such as Facebook, MySpace and others in order to spread the marketing of a brand into these hugely popular new areas.

It is becoming clear to some marketers that traditional online advertising is not as rewarding – in terms of solid leads – as many would have expected, given the enormous volume of people using social networks.

One marketer said to us recently: “People use social networks to talk to each other, not buy products.”

This is a dilemma for travel brands and travel per se is one of the most experiential products.

Consumers appear very comfortable with using a social network to talk about their holidays – the planning process and, most importantly, what happened in resort.

Some travel brands – STA Travel in particular – have capitalised on this by creating simple applications within a Facebook page for people to visit, rather than traditional advertising slots.

Nevertheless, a new report by digital marketing agency Tamar suggests travel brands are still missing out on the goodwill factor often associated with a holiday.

There is a “great deal of consumer support” on social networks for travel brands, but only a few have registered their presence there.

But the most interesting fact to emerge from the study is this: brands that have tried to embrace social networks have a massive 59% more unofficial supporter groups than those with no presence.

It seems that just acknowledging the existence of social networks and creating some kind of presence is a good start.

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Social Media versus Search

More from TFM&A.

The effectiveness of advertising travel products on social network sites is still up for discussion – users are coming to the sites to interact, not transact.

Enter stage left Blake Chandlee, UK commercial director for Facebook, keynoting to an eager audience.

[Not that Facebook is a social network site, by the way – "it's a utility to help members manage their relationships, a social media platform", apparently]

Chandlee bigged not only Facebook but the social media(utility) sector generally.

Live demos of products and scary growth charts galore, but things got really interesting in the Q&A when a figure from the back mentioned the m-word – monetisation.

The banner ads on Facebook, sold through Microsoft, we know about, but Chandlee introduced a different revenue stream – targeted ads within a member's profile.

"We want to integrate ads into the conversation," he says.

He pulled up his own profile on screen, which featured a video ad for a film which had been mentioned by a friend who had added a review of the movie to her own page.

The connection is obvious – less so the return on investment for these ads, which are to be sold on a CPM basis. If a friend tells me about a great holiday they've had in New York, an ad for New York might appear.

Earlier, Chandlee mentioned that social media was changing the dynamics of search – suggesting that members are starting to ask their "social graph" for travel inspiration rather than Google.

If this trend develops, and Facebook can offer travel suppliers genuinely targeted ads, could social media sites start to steal some of search's fire?

Co-incidentally, I picked up a copy of a magazine called Brand Management just after Chandlee's session which included a Q&A with Lastminute.com's chief marketing officer Simon Thompson. "PPC annual cost inflation within the travel category is now close to outrageous," he says.

So will targeted ads within social media sites exploit concerns over the cost of PPC?

Chandlee kept referring to Facebook's 23-year-old founder Mark Zuckerburg as a visionary.

Visionary enough to threaten search's dominance on online marketing spend? Not so sure...

Martin Cowen, chief writer, Travolution

Technorati tags: facebook microsoft social network

Say what you like about social networks - they are popular and travel can surely find a way to harness their potential

Ok, it seems like there are two camps of Facebook people at the moment: there are those that have completely embraced the concept and also those that use it by are trying desperately hard to find ways to criticise it and predict its imminent demise.

Let the debate amongst new media and travel professionals continue, but for a second take a look at some incredible statistics out of the US this evening regarding the phenomenal growth of Facebook and other social networking sites.

The latest figures from Comscore show sites such as Facebook have seen monthly user numbers leap from 14 million in June 2006 to 52 million just a year later (that's a rise of 270%).

Even MySpace, which here in the UK is in danger of losing its way/being overshadowed by Facebook, has seen numbers globally increase to 114 million from 66 million over the same period.

Hi5 is up 56%. Friendster 65%. Orkut 78%. Bebo 172%.

Bob Ivins from ComScore hits the nail on the head here:

“A fundamental aspect of the success of social networking sites is cultural relevance.

“Those doing well in certain regions are likely doing an effective job of communicating appropriately with those regions’ specific populations.

"As social networking continues to evolve, it will be exciting to see if networks are able to cross cultural barriers and bring people from different corners of the globe together in fulfilling the truest ideals of social networking.”

For travel brands there must be a way to seize upon this growth (and opportunity) with more than applications in Facebook and pages on MySpace.

We wrote about this a few weeks back, following comments from Alex Bainbridge.

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Technorati tags: facebook myspace social network comscore

Social networks - not quite right for travel?

UPDATE: Bainbridge has continued his musings on a new post.

Current social networks - such as MySpace, Facebook, WAYN - are not the place for promoting travel companies. Why? Because travellers fall into three categories:

• Pre purchase information - finding out more product information from people who have been there before.
• Post purchase, pre travelling - checking last minute changes (errata?).
• Post travel - photo / video uploading, getting back in contact with people you travelled with.

Well, so says Alex Bainbridge on his Musings on Travel E-Commerce blog.

A fascinating post, although Bainbridge does have a social networking-type service being used by his own company, TourCMS, to plug at the end.

Worth a read...

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Introducing...SpotRedSea.com

Instead of directing readers to a site, the people behind SpotRedSea.com guys have made a handy video, which we can publish instead!

Billed as a cross between a travel booking engine, shop, directory, classifieds and social networking site, they have also created portals for Maldives, Seychelles and Dubai.



Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Technorati tags: seychelles maldives dubai red sea mash-up

What is your definition of Web 2.0?

I am working on a presentation for a seminar being held at UK banking giant Barclays on Wednesday.

The working title I have been given is: "The next generation of the Internet and the implications for travel" - in other words, a look at Web 2.0 and, in turn, Travel 2.0.

Thought it might be interesting, in order to demonstrate how the "community" is often now the source rather than the recipient of information, to ask Travolution blog readers for their definition of Web 2.0 - in one sentence...

Please leave your entry in the comments section. All will be included in the presentation...

Cheers!

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Technorati tags: web 2.0 social media

Mashable picks its best travel sites

US tech site Mashable has published Travel Hacking: Essential Sites for Summer Travelers - a list of decent social networking websites and applications.

No particularly new names on the list, but some old favourites still there and good to see the wider developer community being exposed to some excellent sites:

• TripWiser
• Iloho
• Dopplr
• TripHub
• WAYN
  
• Travelistic
• TripUp
• Matador
• Travelblog
• TripBase
• MyTripBook
• Kayak
• TripAdvisor
• WorldHum
• HoboTraveler
• Google Earth
• Facebook

Go to the Mashable site for their analysis of each site.

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Technorati tags: mashable
web 2.0

We are all Prosumers now

This is very good [if you ignore the irritating narration]:



Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Hat-tip: Travel and Web 2.0

Thomson bans Facebook

Writing on his Facebook page last night, a member of the TUI board of directors (you can probably guess who) said he was "miffed IT have blocked Facebook".

We can imagine hundreds of old desktop PCs being dusted down so eager Thomson employees can maintain their Facecrack habits when they get home.

Wonder what will happen to TUI's very own, unofficial Facebook Group, Britannia AKA Thomsonfly AKA TUIfly AKA TUI Travel?

In fact, the group description "For all those that work (or for the pilots, do sudoko) for the glorious 'World of TUI' in any of it's guises !!!" will have probably to be changed following recent events.

[One of our eagle-eyed sub-editors has already pointed to the apostrophe in the possessive - tut tut TUI]

There are now 166 members of the group left without something to do during lunch breaks.

Surely time for a staff walkout...

Anyone know of other travel companies that have banned Facebook?

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Technorati tags: facebook ban facebook thomson

Web 2.0 travel sites - don't yawn

Don't look away just yet. Consumer travel blog Travel Rants has produced a list - yep, another one - of "Web 2.0" travel sites.

Some interesting sites, if a little confusing (Bezurk, for example, is not included in the same category as Kayak). We have included Sidestep to go alongside Kayak; WAYN is now in the social network category.

[List below]

It is good to see consumer bloggers are picking out some of the innovative sites which apparently adhere to the principles of Web 2.0.

However, here is a sobering thought from Antony Mayfield, in a post The Downside of Web 2.0 is the Name.

"Web 2.0 will one day seem as dated as a micro-scooter and Foosball," Mayfield writes.

Maybe it's just us, but Web 2.0 suddenly seems a bit uncool. Perhaps we need O'Reilly to come up with something else.

Anyway, we digress. Here are the list of sites...

Audio /Podcast Tours

Oggtours

Holiday / Flight Search

Kayak
Momondo

Hotels / Hotel Reviews

Bezurk
Hotels Combined
Paguna
Travelpost
TV Trip
Sidestep
Trivop

Miscellaneous

Native Text
Netweather
Plazes
Tripper Map
zLango

Travel Inspiration / Experiences

Everyscape
Everytrail
Grapheety
Gusto
My Trip book
Trayle
Tripbase
Tripcart
Tripology

Travel Social Networks

Pairup
TripUp
Trip Mates
WAYN

Travel videos

Geobeats
Travelistic
Venividiwiki

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Technorati tags: web 2.0 travel 2.0 o'reilly

Sidestep and Facebook doing a thing

Social networking phenomenon Facebook just got very interesting for those wondering how travel companies might be able to interact with it.

US travel search engine Sidestep yesterday unveiled a plug-in for members to add their trips, previous and forthcoming, to their homepage.

Users who create a new entry can then invite other Facebook members they know are/were included in the trip to be added, as well as being able to upload photographs and notes.

Sidestep gets a mention and a link on every page associated with the tool.

[Mashable has a list of its Top Facebook plug-ins]

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Technorati tags: facebook facebook API facebook platform

Social networking and blogs for travel companies

Alex Bainbridge, on the TravelUCD forum, points us to a rather curious site, created for businesses by the UK's leadng telecomms provider BT.

BT Tradespace is an area for (predominantly) small and medium-sized businesses to produce blogs, create videos and podcasts, and publish deals.

The site is divided into sectors, including weddings, software and, of course, "Holidays and Leisure".

It is free to sign up and create a "space" - and many travel companies have.

The blog area for each business, for example, allows readers to rate each inidividual post, similar to the Digg model.

This is where the curious nature of the project appears to end and the reality of what is actually going on kicks in.

Most of the posts are little more than ad bulletin boards and are not really blogs at all. A case of using a trendy web model because it sounds like something that should be done. The voting element is a nice touch, but who is going to take the time to vote on a sales pitch.

As Bainbridge points out, the structure of the site - very keyword heavy - suggests it has been built with SEO in mind.

A good initiative but not executed particularly well.

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

No longer Diggered

Quick post to say we're delighted to discover that the Travolution URLs have recently been unblocked by content aggregator Digg.com.

Whether or not this is because we specifically made a point of publicising the frustrating circumstances surrounding issue in December remains to be seen.

We never did receive an explanation.

Anyway, happy Digging...

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Emergency Emergency - social networking in action

Not really travel-related at all, but certainly worth a mention.

Story on the BBC talks about a social networking idea from the Human-Computer Interaction Lab at the University of Maryland, where the all the 911.gov sites across the US will be incorporated and "citizens could leave text, video and photos on the site of emergencies, natural disasters and terror attacks".

More here (PDF).

Fascinating idea. It builds on a Web 2.0-style project for the people of Chicago, known as ChicagoCrime.org, which uses a Googe Maps mash-up to plot crime rates across the city.

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Consumers United 1 - Ryanair 0

Ryanair has never been one to shirk away from having a fight with its rivals, the government, the press, and on some occasions even its customers.

But the low cost carrier appears, for the time being, to have lost a battle with Ryanaircampaign.org, a consumer website that assists those who want to make complaints against the airline.

Ryanair lodged a complaint with the World Intellectual Property Organisation in September 2006, claiming the site - created in 2003 after a passenger had a bad experience on a flight to Italy – infringed on its copyright.

The airline also alleged the website “registered the domain name primarily for the purpose of unfairly disrupting the business of the complainant [Ryanair] and causing it unfair loss and damage”.

A fair amount of legal jockeying has been going on to establish whether Ryanaircampaign has been created unfairly and whether its strong presence on search engine results impinges on Ryanair’s brand identity and ability to do business.

However the WIPO's Abritration and Mediation Center panel has ruled against Ryanair, deeming the registration and use of the domain name was not in “bad faith”.

A victory for consumers? Or another step on the road to discovering how far the web can be pushed into issues of freedom of information?

The document outlining the complaint, the legalese involved in the case, and the result, has been posted on the Ryanaircampaign website.

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

We are Diggered

A few months back we were alerted to the fact that Digg.com had refused to accept any new submissions of articles originating from both the Travolution Blog and the Travolution website.

We tried to post a few articles ourselves, only to be always greeted with the following message:

"This URL has been reported by users and cannot be submitted at this time."

We understand, of course, that there are certain terms and conditions that users should adhere to [we hope that we have, of course] and our own posts to the site were limited to perhaps one a week.

However, all our efforts to obtain a response from Digg.com - via email - to get to the bottom of the problem, or at least be told why we have been barred, have been ignored.

We also - as a publication that consistently promotes the use of social networking as A Good Thing for the travel industry - attempted to get through to Digg via its media team, with no luck.

Surely the world of social media must extend to being sociable and therefore responding to emails from users?

Any solutions to this problem will be gratefully received.

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

A bluffers guide to social media

Antony Mayfield from Spannerworks writes:

Are you clear on exactly what social media is? Social media, which includes blogs, wikis, MySpace and YouTube, is not just a new set of media outlets or channels: is it is a fundamental re-writing of the rules of how media works.

The rate of innovation and change in online media at the moment is incredible. Many people are likely to have heard stats like "one blog is created every second" and "100 million downloads are made from YouTube every day" without necessarily understanding what lies behind them, or what they mean for their brand.

If you work with a major brand, chances are that social media is already affecting your communications and even your business.

For instance: 88% of the top 100 brands have a Wikipedia entry (a community-edited encyclopaedia) in the first 20 results on Google (most people don't look further than the first twenty results); MySpace delivers more traffic to HMV.co.uk than the Microsoft search engine MSN (now rebranding as Live).

Social media is best understood as a group of new kinds of online media, which share most or all of the following characteristics:

* Participation: social media encourages contributions and feedback from everyone who is interested. It blurs the line between the concept of media and audience.

* Openness: most social media services are open to feedback and participation. They encourage voting, feedback, comments and sharing of information. There are rarely any barriers to accessing and making use of content - password protected content is frowned on.

* Conversation: whereas traditional media is about "broadcast", content transmitted or distributed to an audience, social media is better seen as conversational, two-way.

* Community: social media allows communities to form quickly and communicate effectively around common interests - be that a love of photography, a political issue or a favourite TV show.

* Connectedness: Most kinds of social media thrive on their connectedness, via links and combining different kinds of media in one place.

Antony Mayfield, head of content and social media, Spannerworks

Spannerworks has produced a fantastic book - What is Social Media? - available free to download here. NB: Creative Commons Copyright on P32