m-Travel.com and Travel Distribution News

Archive Category: Web/Tech

Google to introduce new ad placements on search

Google, which has been working on improving the design and experience of Google Search, is introducing new ad placements.

(Placements are locations on the Google Display Network where an ad can appear. A placement can be an entire website, a subset of a website (such as a selection of pages from that site), or even an individual ad unit positioned on a single page. There are two types of placements: Automatic placements: If you have keywords in your ad group and are targeting the Display Network, Google uses contextual targeting to determine "automatic placements" where your ads appear; Managed placements: Placements users choose to manage separately for increased control. One can set unique bids for each of managed placements, or use managed placements to restrict the sites in the Display Network where ads appear).

“Ads that have previously shown to the side of the results may in some cases appear below them. We dynamically optimise each search page, including its ads, to provide the best experience for our users,” shared Jerry Dischler, director, Search Ads Product Management.

In many cases, Google says it has found that displaying ads below search results fits better into the user’s flow as they scan the page from top to bottom.

“On average, this placement performed better than side ads in terms of click-through rate in our tests,” said Dischler.

(Ads showing to the side of the search results)

(Ads showing below the search results)

Users can use the "Top vs. Side" segment in order to compare the performance of ads in the top positions versus all other positions.

In the coming weeks, "Top vs. Side" will be renamed to "Top vs. Other."

Google was also recently in news for a major adjustment to its search engine.

“Search results, like warm cookies right out of the oven or cool refreshing fruit on a hot summer’s day, are best when they’re fresh,” said Amit Singhal, Google Fellow. “Even if you don’t specify it in your search, you probably want search results that are relevant and recent.”

“Different searches have different freshness needs. This algorithmic improvement is designed to better understand how to differentiate between these kinds of searches and the level of freshness you need, and make sure you get the most up to the minute answers.”

The change to Google’s results-ranking algorithm was expected to change outcomes of about 35 percent of searches, giving higher ranking to current information.

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Web analytics is the most valued information source if you are creating travel products

The data and information the travel industry is using to create new travel products is changing fast. In a recent survey for the Product development in Travel Report it was found that a whole range of new data sources were regarded as far more useful than traditional industry data.

The data and information the travel industry is using to create new travel products is changing fast. In a recent survey for the Product development in Travel Report it was found that a whole range of new data sources were regarded as far more useful than traditional industry data.

Whilst Google analytics led the field as a useful data source 64% of responders also stated social media is a vital source of information during product development. Interestingly the use of the larger social networks such as Facebook and Twitter are rated as poor sources of data and are in fact the lowest ranked of those sources investigated. This suggested niche networks work better. Sources such as WTTC, UNWTO and GDS are the least used sources across the sectors.

One of the most highly rated sources were web analytics, Google, market studies and industry databases. The ability for the analytics tool to allow you to assess the strength of demand for new products in new markets in vital.

However as always its in house data that is the most useful. Location based data has led to some interesting developments. Mobile, location aware hotel booking services recently reported that when bookings were made by customers for the same day the hotels were usually less than 2 miles away from where the customer made his booking. Once you know where someone is and where they are staying you can provide highly targeted offers for nearby restaurants and attractions.

The research is from the report “Product Development in travel.” It will be given to all attendees of the Product Development Strategies for the Travel Industry Conference taking place this November 3-4 in London, the week before WTM.

The event will see product developers, route planers, and commercial directors form the world major airlines hotels and travel intermediaries meet to debate how to use data to create long lived high value travel products. Full agenda is here: http://events.eyefortravel.com/profitable-product-development/index.asp

To find out more about the report go here: http://events.eyefortravel.com/profitable-product-development-report/index.asp

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TripAdvisor appoints Julie M.B. Bradley as CFO

TripAdvisor has appointed Julie M.B. Bradley as its chief financial officer, effective immediately.

In this newly-created role, Bradley will oversee corporate finance, investor relations, accounting, corporate development, human resources and real estate.

Bradley previously served as senior vice president and chief financial officer of Art Technology Group (ATG), where she was responsible for managing all financial activities, investor relations and global infrastructure. During her tenure Bradley guided the company to profitable revenue growth and ultimately oversaw the acquisition of ATG by Oracle.

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AOL UK re-launches its travel site

AOL UK has re-launched its premium travel site AOL Travel, which now has enhanced features and a redesign that presents news, reviews and bespoke guides in a simpler, more user-friendly format.

The company emphasised that there is a strong appetite amongst consumers for quality travel journalism presented in a visually appealing way.

Navigation on the site has been improved to offer categorised sections including Travel Ideas, Travel News and Inspire & Entertain Me, a gallery of visual content designed for browsing.

AOL Travel will also be collaborating with writer Rocky Casale, who has penned 50 destination guides. Casale will offer users insider tips on the best places to see, eat and sleep in the most searched for destinations online.

AOL Travel also continues its partnership with Expedia, offering a booking service directly through the website. Additionally, users of the site can benefit from an exclusive £10 credit offer with through members site, Voyage Prive.

AOL Travel is the latest AOL UK site to undergo a redesign following in the footsteps of the AOL.co.uk homepage and other sites.

Targeted ad solutions

The site has also been optimised to provide advertisers with a range of targeted ad solutions, from the Project Devil format to destination-specific ads and engaging advertorials.

AOL Travel relaunches with Warner Leisure Hotels as the official advertising partner.

Warner is using AOL UK’s Project Devil display advertising format and is the first travel advertiser to take advantage of the new ad unit. The campaign uses Project Devil’s three-panel interactive “canvas” to promote the hotel group’s properties and experiences.

The launch creative includes an image gallery of the hotel properties and holiday experiences as well as an exclusive offer. Alongside the Project Devil ad, the campaign will be supported at a later date by sponsored content on the website. The campaign will run for one month.

Jason Riseborough, Head of Online, Warner Leisure Hotels. “We are keen to convey a sense of experience for our hotel guests, not just the range of properties in the Warner Leisure Hotel portfolio. The Project Devil format allows us to highlight these messages in a creative, accessible and interactive way, all within the one place.”

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Improving upon iPhone Mobile App search experience

Sifting through the volume of apps one by one to find the right one for the right task can be overwhelming. The current figures testify this: there are more than half a million apps.

Search engine Bing says it is helping people with this “serendipitous discovery” by surfacing relevant apps automatically in the context of normal search queries.

One can try this out on the iPhone in the Bing for Mobile app or m.bing.com in the web browser of your iPhone.

Auto app discovery

Auto app discovery is a unique feature created by Bing, according to Mujahid Hasan, Program Manager, Bing. The Bing search engine will surface apps in the context of normal web queries.

Citing an example, Hasan shared that Thor 3D, Facebook and Hotels in Seattle are some of the queries for which Bing automatically finds the right apps:

Bing also can find the app you are searching for using the app name or other criteria. For example, queries such as: Top iPhone Apps, News Apps and Download Fruit Ninja, all have app search as the primary intent.

Deep Launch into Apps

Bing not only helps to find apps, but can also launch some of the installed apps directly from the app search results.

Hasan shared: If an App is not installed on your phone, when you click on the download link Bing takes you to download the app from the iTunes App Store. If the App is already installed and the developer has enabled the launch functionality, then it will launch automatically.

 

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Offering access of one hotel Facebook Page to numerous administrators

Managing a Facebook presence can be a lot of work. Many companies give administrative access to their professional Facebook Page to employees. A hotel owner, for example, could make a number of employees, or even partners, administrators of their hotel Facebook Page, to spread around the work or to help install new applications.

Here’s how to make someone else an administrator of your Facebook Page.

WARNING: Adding another administrator to your Facebook Page will give the person full and complete control of your Page. They can make edits, upload pictures, install apps and everything else that you can do. They can even remove you as an administrator. Be very sure that you trust the person before granting administrator privileges. Note that a new administrator can only manage your Page. They can NEVER manage, edit or modify your personal Profile.

1) After logging into your personal Facebook Profile, click on the “Pages” link in the left-hand column (you will see this column ONLY if you are on your Facebook “Home” page—not your “Profile” page). You may have to click a small “more” link in order to reveal it.

2) Select your Page from the list. If you administrate only one Page, then only one will display here.

3) Now that you are on your Page, click “edit page” in the top right.

4) Next, click “Manage Admins” from the list to the left.

 

5) On the resulting page, you will see a list of all the people who are administrators of your Page. To add a new one, start typing in the name of the person in the vacant type field. Note that the new admin MUST have a Facebook account and MUST be your personal Facebook friend.

6) As you are typing, you will see the name of your person appear. Select the name and click “Save Changes”.

 

7) Facebook will next ask you to type in your password. This is your personal Facebook Profile password—the one you used to log-in to Facebook. Type it in and click “Confirm”.

All done! You have now added a new administrator to your Page.

(This article appeared as a posting on buuteeq.com’s blog).

 

 

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Expedia to accelerate mobile app development, acquires Mobiata

Online travel company Expedia has entered into an agreement to acquire mobile travel applications developer Mobiata.

Mobiata will remain in its headquarters in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

Expedia says the deal accelerates its ability to enable mobile travel shopping and booking across multiple platforms.

“With the pace at which mobile traffic to Expedia sites is exploding, we wanted the right team to help us address the sizable opportunity swiftly and successfully,” said Dara Khosrowshahi, CEO of Expedia. “There's simply no better company out there doing mobile travel apps with the same level of design sensibility and utility as Mobiata.”

To its credit, Mobiata has developed a host of travel apps, including FlightTrack, itinerary manager app TripDeck and hotel booking app HotelPal. With its experience offering mobile travel design and development services to third parties, Mobiata brings to Expedia the proven ability to design and execute the most compelling travel apps available to mobile users

Mobile traffic currently accounts for approximately four percent of all visitors to Expedia.com, with mobile bookings up in 2010 nearly five times over the previous year.

“Mobile and travel are just made for each other,” said Joe Megibow, VP of Global Analytics and Optimisation for Expedia. “The mobile device is always with us; it’s always on. Getting mobile right for our customers is something we take very seriously.”

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