Everyone's personal web page a must?

might be a future reality according to this Real Time column in WSJ.com by Jason Fry. He raises a number of interesting points that will indeed make this a general reality as it is already for a fast increasing number of people who can easily be found on the web today. In the networked world we live in today, where radical transparency is another fact of life I can imagine this scenario.

I found this quote by Curt Monash particularly poignant: "The Internet WILL tell stories about you, true or otherwise. Make sure your own version is out there too." It's a necessity for companies today and might become one for everybody in future, who knows.

One thing seems obvious to me, this new reality will have a profound impact on how to market products and services effectively.

Are you ready?

The Hyperconnected: Here They Come! is the name of a new IDC study of global communications habits commissioned by Nortel. They interviewed 2400 working adults in 17 countries. This will have implications on how business is being conducted as this group expands at a rapid pace and travel will certainly be affected. Their demands on the user experience will be higher than those of the less connected. They will also very likely be more willing to post their comments and reviews, good or bad, to their social network and beyond.

The study can be downloaded from the article page. Better get ready!

Technorati Tags: IDC, Nortel, communications, hyperconnected

“Making Sense of the Semantic Web”

This is a great video by Nova Spivack of Radar Networks on this topic still often misunderstood. I agree with his definition of the terms web 1.0 / 2.0 / 3.0 being about time periods in the development of the web. We're now just about at the end of the second decade (2.0) and will enter the next (3.0) around 2010.

There will be definite implications on travel and the customer experience of researching, planning and purchasing travel. Before there will be dramatic changes, however, the pendulum will have to swing back to the front end or user experience focus, which he predicts will be the case in web 4.0 or more than ten years out, as web 3.0 deals more with the back end or the data.

In the meantime there will be new initiatives that will introduce semantic web tools into travel as we have seen with Uptake and TripIt. The latter is actually shown in one of his slides.

One of his comments I liked a lot is that we should talk about "artificial stupidity" rather than "artificial intelligence" that is required to eliminate humans from having to deal with the mundane, or stupid tasks, and let us focus on the intelligent ones. Couldn't agree more.

Nova Spivack at The Next Web Conference 2008 from Boris Veldhuijzen van Zanten on Vimeo.

Predicting flight delays

is what Delaycast does as explained in the latest issue of Springwise the trend newsletter. Should become a welcome and useful tool for travelers as we head into the summer season.

The future web is the grid

Coming soon: superfast internet reports the Times Online in this eye opening article. It's further proof that "we ain't seen nothing yet" when it comes to the web and once the grid is accessible to all users the web experience will move to a whole other level from what we're used to today. It's too early to tell how this will specifically manifest itself in eCommerce but it doesn't take too much imagination to see that it will be significant. Enjoy the ride!


Technorati Tags: grid, intelligent web

Web Technology Trends for 2008 and Beyond

This is a great presentation of some of the key developments that have already arrived or are on the horizon. It's clear that they will have an impact on the online travel industry, with search being one area in particular where innovation will happen based on what's called the semantic, or intelligent web. Another area will be recommendation systems where things are moving ahead with improved results noticeable to users.

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Yahoo Search Casts Lots with Semantic Web Technology

reports MarketingVOX. This is further proof of improved search becoming a reality in the not too distant future and here's a quote relevant to travel

For example, instead of searching for hotels in Miami and having to sift through results that include hotels, travel vendors and hotel deals, one could query for Miami hotels that allow pets, are five minutes from the beach and cost no more than $150 per night.

It will be interesting to observe how the travel meta-search companies will react to the major searchers offering more relevant results.