Amazing what can happen in just a few minutes.
STA Travel Buzz is following Travolution and they are also using Twitter in a very different way from lastminute.com's effort.
The page is maintained by "molly", a "travel-happy blogger gal who loves trains, planes and her EeePC" and obviously works for STA.
Kevin May, editor, Travolution
The lastminute.com-twitter debate is still rumbling on.
And it seems the floodgates are beginning to open.
This morning we have had two new followers to the Travolution Twitter account - Devon Hotels and Directline Holidays.
Devon Hotels is using the service very much like lastminute.com, plugging deals etc.
But Directline Holidays appears to using it in a different way, throwing random thoughts about travel into the ether.
The only problem they have, and need to rectify soon, is that the last update was March this year!
So based on the Twitter idea of responding to the question "What are you doing?", some might construe that the only answer from Directline over the past few months was "not a lot"!
Kevin May, editor, Travolution
Technorati tags: twitter
Travolution is currently followed by over 200 people on Twitter - the micro-blogging service and on-off darling of Silicon Valley.
[Follow Travolution]
Our latest fan is everyone's favoruite pink online travel agency, lastminute.com. The email arrived earlier today:
The OTA joined the service earlier this week, according to the updates list on the lastminute.com Twitter page.
This is the first UK OTA we have found to be actively using Twitter as a brand. There are plenty of individuals from travel companies using Twitter.
Anyway, inevitably, lastminute.com is using Twitter to flog, er, lastminute deals - five in one day this week.
It also has a decidedly garish screen!
So the question is this: do I want to follow lastminute.com - and have its updates getting in the way of other, perhaps more personally relevant people I'm following - if it is just going to serve deals to into Twitterland?
I can see why they are doing it - just not sure if I want it.
What do you all think?
Kevin May, editor, Travolution
Technorati tags: twitter lastminute
Or not...
Despite the apparent economic slowdown and subsequent belt tightening, some might argue monetary madness reigns supreme.
Here in the UK, agency consortium Advantage Travel Centres is the subject of much speculation about its future following rumours that Australian travel giant Stella is on the brink of a takeover of the business.
The figure banded being talked about in most sensible circles is around £8 million.
Meanwhile, some might say, over in la-la land, micro-blogging service Twitter is apparently worth $95 million (that's £47 million).
This is on the back of Kayak's purchase of Sidestep last December for around $160 million (£90 million at the time) - a move Steve Hafner recently admitted was primarily for the traffic.
So the question: is traffic worth more than structure?
Kevin May, editor, Travolution
[With thanks to Les Explorers]
On the first day of Christmas,
my cool colleague sent to me
A tip to expand my business globally
On the second day of Christmas,
my cool colleague sent to me
Two social networks,
And a tip to expand my business globally!
On the third day of Christmas,
my cool colleague sent to me
Three Del.icio.us bookmarks,
Two social networks,
And a tip to expand my business globally!
On the fourth day of Christmas,
my cool colleague sent to me
Four YouTube videos,
Three Del.icio.us bookmarks,
Two social networks,
And a tip to expand my business globally!
On the fifth day of Christmas,
my cool colleague sent to me
Five Second Lives,
Four YouTube videos,
Three Del.icio.us bookmarks,
Two social networks,
And a tip to expand my business globally!
On the sixth day of Christmas,
my cool colleague sent to me
Six Twitter nudges,
Five Second Lives,
Four YouTube videos,
Three Del.icio.us bookmarks,
Two social networks,
And a tip to expand my business globally!
On the seventh day of Christmas,
my cool colleague sent to me
Seven Facebook pokes,
Six Twitter nudges,
Five Second Lives,
Four YouTube videos,
Three Del.icio.us bookmarks,
Two social networks,
And a tip to expand my business globally!
On the eighth day of Christmas,
my cool colleague sent to me
Eight Wiki entries,
Seven Facebook pokes,
Six Twitter nudges,
Five Second Lives,
Four YouTube videos,
Three Del.icio.us bookmarks,
Two social networks,
And a tip to expand my business globally!
On the ninth day of Christmas,
my cool colleague sent to me
Nine ladies blogging,
Eight Wiki entries,
Seven Facebook pokes,
Six Twitter nudges,
Five Second Lives,
Four YouTube videos,
Three Del.icio.us bookmarks,
Two social networks,
And a tip to expand my business globally!
On the tenth day of Christmas,
my cool colleague sent to me
Ten lords IM'ng,
Nine ladies blogging,
Eight Wiki entries,
Seven Facebook pokes,
Six Twitter nudges,
Five Second Lives,
Four YouTube videos,
Three Del.icio.us bookmarks,
Two social networks,
And a tip to expand my business globally!
On the eleventh day of Christmas,
my cool colleague sent to me
Eleven podcasters podcasting,
Ten lords IM'ng,
Nine ladies blogging,
Eight Wiki entries,
Seven Facebook pokes,
Six Twitter nudges,
Five Second Lives,
Four YouTube videos,
Three Del.icio.us bookmarks,
Two social networks,
And a tip to expand my business globally!
On the twelfth day of Christmas,
my cool colleague sent to me
Twelve Stumblers stumbling,
Eleven podcasters podcasting,
Ten lords IM'ng,
Nine ladies blogging,
Eight Wiki entries,
Seven Facebook pokes,
Six Twitter nudges,
Five Second Lives,
Four YouTube videos,
Three Del.icio.us bookmarks,
Two social networks,
And a tip to expand my business globally!
Merry Christmas to you all...
Kevin May, editor, Travolution
The BOOT highlights an intriguing website called TopHotel100.com.
It is basically a catalogue of the most popular hotel-related websites on the web, based on the number of other sites on the list that "mention" [in other words, link] them.
[A bit like Technorati]
But the list itself is rather odd. The top ten goes something like this:
Thought it might be interesting to create a Travolution section on Facebook, the fantastic social networking site.
Anyone interested can look for "travolution" as a group and then simply join.
If we get a lot of people it may become our forum - its discussion 'wall' for members does exactly that.
Kevin May, editor, Travolution
Technorati tags: facebook
Ok. Trying something out over the next few weeks on the blog.
To the right hand side you'll notice a Twitter.com box, featuring the latest random one-liners from the Travolution team.
For those not in the know, Twitter is a simple product that asks people to say in 140 characters what they are doing at any given moment. People are then invited to respond and start a conversation.
It is a smart little tool, rather fun, but is good demonstration of the way in which new social networking sites can grow so rapidly. It has taken the internet by storm in recent months.
I'm curious as to how many people are doing the Twitter within our community of travel and new media professionals, consumer bloggers and others.
[You do not necessarily need to be using the in-site widget like we do on the right hand side]
The list so far includes:
