travel

TNOOZ: Semantic web and its impact on travel was the focus of the opening session of the OpenTravel Advisory Forum in sunny Miami.

This comes on the heels of an IBM report, released earlier this month, that looked at travel in 2020. One of the interesting conclusions focused on consumer dissatisfaction with how they are handled by online travel agencies.

TRAVOLUTION: Carsten Kraus is chief executive of Europe’s leading online search specialist and semantic search pioneer, FACT-Finder

With the announcement that Google will be using semantic search technology as the backbone for its latest “drastic” makeover – which will see the search engine giant endeavour to actually help users answer questions rather than simply hunt down words – it looks as though the much hyped “next big step” in search engine functionality is finally ready to hit the mainstream.

TRAVOLUTION: Semantic search pioneer Fact-Finder is targeting the UK after Thomas Cook German subsidiary Neckermann Urlaubswelt started using the technology.

The German online travel agency went live with the search technology yesterday (Thursday February 16) joining weg.de, which has been using it on its homepage since January 25 after a two month test.

Carsten Kraus, Fact-Finder founder, said he plans to take the technology international beyond its European core in the next few months with the UK and US on his radar.

TNOOZ: FACT-Finder, a website usability specialist based in Germany, has devised what it claims could be a system to see off the threat of Google in travel search.

Known as FACT-Finder Travel, the tool is a semantic search system targeting online travel agents which allows consumers to enter free text during search queries, including spelling mistakes, slang and abbreviations.

The company hopes the improved usability will help switch online travel agencies to its solution.

TNOOZ: It took me about 15 years from when I started travelling for business and pleasure to appreciate the value of a professional travel agent.

In 1979 as a junior MadMan I relied upon secretaries and expense accounts for guidance, while personal travel was collaboration between an advertised special, a travel agency storefront, and my girlfriend.

By 1996 my prospering Internet development company was flying people around the globe and Ann Marie, our independent travel agent, made several dozen bookings a week seem trivial.

TNOOZ: In a previous Tnooz article I suggested that internet technology had transformed the travel transaction into a self-service, always on, multiple choice, zero friction vending machine.

The universal presentation of a matrix listing the “travel troika” of time and place differentiated by price has convinced consumers that travel products are generic, to the detriment of brand values and unique product differentiation.