Semantic Travel Search Engine UpTake Launches According to a comScore study done last year, booking travel over the Internet has become something of a nightmare for people. It's not that using any of the booking engines is difficult, it's just that there is so much information out there that planning a vacation is overwhelming. According to the comScore study, the average online vacation plan comes together through 12 travel-related searches and visits to 22 different web sites over the course of 29 days. Semantic search startup UpTake (formerly Kango) aims to make that process easier. UpTake is a vertical search engine that has assembled what it says is the largest database of US hotels and activities -- over 400,000 of them -- from more than 1,000 different travel sites. Using a top-down approach, UpTake looks at its database of over 20 million reviews, opinions, and descriptions of hotels and activities in the US and semantically extracts information about those destinations.
moneyfortherestofus This is the second post (part b) of the series Tips for Cheap Travel. You can follow along in these posts by subscribing to the feed when the site's back up. Thanks for your patience and understanding. The New Way to Find the Best Airfare Deals If you’re like most bargain airfare seekers, chances are your flight shopping goes something like this: 1. Go to Kayak.com or Orbitz.com. Or Priceline.com, Hotwire.com, or Travelocity.com.
How to Get Travel Planning Right - SAVE Money and Time! Last week we spoke about how to choose your travel destinations for 2014. If you’re having trouble deciding where to visit this year, go and read that post first. Now that you know your destinations for the upcoming year, or have a better idea of where you’d like to visit, let’s talk about how to get your travel planning done right! I know, travel planning and researching deals can be a pain in the butt. It takes time, and time is what most of us don’t have. Why Entertainment Will Drive the Next Checkin Craze In recent months, a crop of services have popped up that re-purpose the checkin concept, popularized by Foursquare, and connect it to media and entertainment, as opposed to location. In theory, the idea of checking-in to cultural concepts (like media, music, etc.) and not places is one that doesn't jive in the real-world. It would follow then that the apps that provide this service — GetGlue, Philo and Miso — are silly and far too extreme in ideology to attract anything more than a testbed tech audience. In practice, this alternative checkin behavior is one that is more cultural and familiar than anything the location checkin offers. In fact, it emulates the way we experience entertainment in our everyday lives. The desire to share is unchanging — it's how we share that will continue to evolve with the help of social media and entertainment checkin services.
Wallpaper* City Guides Whether you are staying for 48 hours or five days, visiting for business or a vacation, we’ve done the hard work for you, from finding the best restaurants, bars and hotels (including which rooms to request) to the most extraordinary stores and sites, and the most enticing architecture and design. Wallpaper* City Guides enable you to come away from your trip, however brief, with a real taste of the city’s landscape and the satisfaction you’ve seen all that you should. A selection of cities are also available from the Nokia Store and Windows Phone Marketplace. Honolulu, United States Recommendations A few years ago, we created Wanderfly to make the online travel experience more personal, fun and beautiful. From a dinner conversation idea, to a dozen employees crammed in a Soho/Brooklyn loft, to being honored as a top 10 startup, it has been a crazy few years. In 2012, TripAdvisor acquired Wanderfly so that millions of travelers around the world could find the same travel inspiration and recommendations that Wanderfly fans already enjoyed. We're so proud to say that what started as a spontaneous "why not?"
Budgeting 101: Using a budget spreadsheet By Jeremy Branham on Aug 04, 2010 with Comments 6 With a struggling economy, high unemployment, and mounting debt, many people are struggling to make ends meet. More than ever, learning to use a simple budget spreadsheet can help people control their spending and pay off their debts. While tips on getting out of debt go far beyond this budgeting example, there are simple steps you can take to track your spending and expenses.
Tripline's Use of Google Geo APIs Tripline The Google Geo Developers Blog has a great guest post from Byron Dumbrill, Founder & CEO of Tripline. Tripline was one of my Maps of the Week last month. Tripline allows anyone to easily create an embeddable interactive Google Map of a journey or trip. I particularly like how the map uses animated lines to connect each stage of a user created trip. In the Geo Developers Blog post Byron discusses how Tripline decided to use the Google Maps API for Flash as the best platform to combine the maps, the animations and soundtrack elements in Tripline.
Interval International Interval International makes it easy for members to spend vacation time at a vast network of nearly 2,900 resorts in over 80 nations. With the flexibility to choose how you vacation, and a wide variety of valuable benefits, Interval membership is the best thing that's ever happened to vacation ownership. Vacation ExchangeSee more, and do more, beyond your home resort network and during different times of the year. Interval gives you many tools to help you make the exchange you want, when you want it! Seven of the Best Hidden Beaches in the World Want to add these beaches to your RTW itinerary? Don’t know where to start? Sign up today for Plan Your RTW Trip in 30 Days and start receiving email lesson plans tomorrow – it’s free!
The In-Depth Guide to Buying an RTW Ticket Round the world (RTW) tickets can be a convenient way to fly. They get you where you want to go without you having to worry about booking flights along the way. You pre-book all your tickets in advance and, by purchasing them in one giant bulk package, you can save yourself money on the total price of the ticket. Draw Your Itinerary On A Tripline Map Having just returned from a vacation, I’m in the midst of uploading videos and photos so I can send our visual memories of the trip to family and friends. But what if you could create an animated slideshow of sorts that would include an interactive map of your itinerary with photos, videos, Tweets, and even Foursquare check-ins from your trip? Tripline has launched to allow users tell a story of a trip by putting places, images and information on a map.