Random Thoughts: Why You Should Not Ignore The Wikis

As we discussed last week Google City Tours presents yet another challenge to the travel industry and should cause all of us to re-think our place in the travel planning funnel.  That discussion was highlighted by the acknowledgment that for the majority of the industry, content is the still a point of differentiation.  Open source content, breaking out of the walled-garden that is your website, etc, etc.

But where do you start?  First, by not ignoring the wikis.

Whether it is Google City Tours or Offbeat Guides, a lot of these new sites and mashups are looking to open-source locations for content.  RSS feeds, blogs and wikis can provide a wealth of content simply because of open distribution.

For most of us…airline, hotel or CVB…we simply do not have the connections in place to distribute our content far and wide.  Additionally, individually, we are only one piece of the puzzle.  It is not very efficient for a site developer to visit every CVB or DMO site in the country to obtain the same basic info via RSS feed.

Which is where two very important wiki sites come into play…Wikipedia and WikiTravel.  Wikipedia you know and if you have read the Travel 2.0 blog for a bit, you should also be familiar with WikiTravel.

Both present an opportunity to capture and aggregate a large amount of content on a wide variety of locations from a central point.

For the most part, major or popular destinations will likely have complete or near-complete articles covering the basics of visiting that location.  For example, Denver’s WikiTravel article. Part of the beauty of a wiki is that anyone can edit them, so content tends to evolve quickly.

However, as a travel provider you should be checking and verifying that the information presented on these sites is correct and accurate.  Again, a lot of other sites are relying on this content to describe your city and you should know what is being said on these wikis.

Editing a wiki is pretty easy and if you have experience or knowledge in HTML, should come quite naturally.  If not, you should probably recruit a member of your staff with HTML knowledge to guide you through the first couple of edits.

We should also mention that the moderators and editors of wikis take the editing process and content presented quite seriously.  Be transparent, when setting up a profile state your affiliation with your company and do not self-promote your site, visitors guide or product.

You are simply there to help build a reputable database about your destination, not self-promote.

Once the article information about your destination has been reviewed by your organization, you can feel confident knowing that your destination is accurately represented in a variety of locations on and off the web.

Just one more way to control your online presence.

Travel Trends – Trazzler, TripKick, PlanetEye, Knol

Trazzler – From the founders of 71miles and Twitter, comes the ‘Where would I rather be right now?’ travel site Trazzler. If you have been reading the blog for a while, you know we are big fans of 71miles and twitter, so we were excited about the new site. And like both those sites, Trazzler is quiet in design and focused on its mission. The site takes into account your location and (they say soon) your personality to deliver one travel recommendation at a time (some call it ‘One Deal at a Time’). The recommendations are actually written by the human hand, rather than crudely pulled from other sites, and offer a simple description of the travel experience…don’t like it, click ‘next.’ Integration with Kayak provides the booking engine connection for the site.

And from the Trazzler blog, a great description of the site’s mission:

Trazzler’s mission is to free people from the distractions and cruft of online travel research. Clear your mind and ask yourself, “Where would I rather be right now?” Then flip through trip pages designed to place you emotionally in a moment with great photography and expert travel writing. Discover travel experiences with a more natural, meandering online experience. Add to your wishlist, explore your travel personality, and take a more inspired approach to online travel—Trazzler is about making it fun.

Wonderful. The site is a refreshing re-thinking of the travel planning site model.
http://trazzler.com/

TripKick – TripKick is SeatGuru for hotels. The service allows you to search (at this time within a limited number of cities) for hotel rooms and determine which room has the best view, best bathroom or is the quietest and away from the elevator. Brilliant. For example, check out the page on the W in Seattle, the site lists what rooms are oversized and have great views. Plus, the design of the site is simple, clean and easy to use. Thank you, TripKick.
http://www.tripkick.com/

PlanetEye – More new travel sites. With backing from some large investors, including Microsoft, PlanetEye takes a slightly different angle on the ‘clip and save’ travel planning site with a focus on mapping (from Microsoft) and images. In addition, the site features several ‘local experts’ in a variety of locations.
http://www.planeteye.com

Knol – Finally, a quick note about Google’s launch of Knol (a unit of knowledge), the search giant’s Wikipedia challenger. Knol, in simple terms, is a user-generated content / article site, like Wikipedia. But unlike Wikipedia, Knol will and can contain multiple articles on the same subject. Plus, unless you authorize contribution from other users, no one else can edit your ‘knol.’ Similar to Squidoo. And what is the travel connection? Think of all the expert ‘knol’ pages you can create about your destination. A lot of work, sure, but the SEO returns could be worth it. Keep an eye on this site, with Google backing it is sure to grow rapidly.
http://knol.google.com

Travel Trends – California, .travel, 2007

California, The Land of Wine and Food – The California Travel and Tourism Commission has recently launched a new website and campaign in partnership with the California Wine Institute titled ‘The Land of Wine and Food.’ The site contains videos, Google map integration, wine info and wine blogs from regular Californians and celebrities such as Andrew Firestone (from ‘The Bachelor‘ fame…personally, I always preferred Joe Millionaire, but I don’t think he has a wine blog). The site looks great, but like most of these ‘partnership’ sites, it is lacking content. I could not find a simple address of a winery, let alone a link. And the search function displays worthy content (like this article on Lodi…hooray Lodi!) that is otherwise no where to be found on the site. Still, worth a look. Cheers.
http://www.landofwineandfood.com/

More .travel – Yes, more .travel. For those of you who thought I was crazy to dismiss the euphoric promise that is .travel (see my original argument and follow-up argument), I present an article from Jens Thraenhart, currently the Executive Director of Marketing Strategy at the Canadian Tourism Commission and fellow blogger. Here are the ‘cliffs notes’ version of the article:

Jens is a pretty smart guy and he agrees with me on .travel.

If you are keeping score:
Troy: 4
.travel: 0

Now, I should be fair when it comes to the .travel subject…if anyone finds a positive article about the current state of the domain name (which is not authored by someone directly involved with Tralliance, The Globe or EnCirca) just pass it my way.
http://www.hsmaieconnect.org/

The Year That Was – comScore recently released the ‘U.S. Internet Year in Review,’ which contained these interesting stats:

• Total U.S. Internet Audience grew 5% from 175 million to 183 million. (including Home, Work and University users)
• Social networking giant Facebook.com reaped the benefits of opening registration to all users, jumping 81 percent versus December 2006 to 34.7 million visitors in December 2007
• Wikipedia Sites gained 34 percent to reach nearly 52 million visitors, continuing its reign as the Web’s most popular reference hub
• Craigslist.org jumped 74 percent to 24.5 million visitors
• AT&T grew 27 percent to 30.2 million visitors boosted by its exclusive deal with Apple as carrier for the iPhone
• Yellow Book Network jumped 137-percent to 10.4 million visitors

http://blogs.mediapost.com/

Travel Trends – 2-D Barcodes, TripIt, Ricoh 500SE

Smartpox – Create a ‘pox’ (2-d barcode, see the image above) with any information you like…restaurant review, link to a song, scavenger hunt clue…and stick it on a sign, wall, anywhere. Then, when users see your barcode, they can take a picture of it with their cell phone and download the review or song. Pretty much any type of text-based information can be contained in the barcode.
http://www.smartpox.com/

Semapedia.org – Using the same technology as Smartpox, Semapedia.org is a non-profit, community-driven project that allows users to create and distribute Semapedia-Tags (again, think barcodes) that link to the free online encyclopedia Wikipedia. So, for example, you could be walking past Chase Field, see a ‘barcode’ and take a picture of it with your cell phone. Your phone would then pull up the Wikipedia page about Chase Field, telling you everything you need to know about the stadium.
http://semapedia.com/

TripIt – A new travel site from Hotwire co-founder Gregg Brockway, TripIt wants to help users keep all of their travel-related materials in one place, regardless of where they book online. Once a user enters a flight reservation (for example), TripIt will automatically add basic info for your trip (maps, weather, directions) as well as allow you to share the info with friends, family, etc…plus, the service is aiming to be widely accessible via the web, mobile or in your calendar.
http://www.tripit.com/

Ricoh 500SE – Map all of your photos with the GPS enabled, Ricoh 500SE. A glimpse into what is coming for the mainstream…GPS information embedded into portable, electronic devices. With this camera, you can download your images to create custom maps with pin-points for all of your photos. Never have to ask the question ‘where was that photo taken?’ again.
http://www.ricohsolutions.com/

Word of the Week – Wiki

A wiki is a website that allows visitors to add, remove, edit and change content, typically without the need for registration. It also allows for linking among any number of pages. This ease of interaction and operation makes a wiki an effective tool for mass collaborative authoring.

The most well known example of a wiki would be Wikipedia.org. (http://www.wikipedia.org/)