Argophilia

Αργοφιλία: For the love of the journey.

Travel Technology

IBM Promises to Squeeze 40 Percent More Bags into Schiphol

Aleksandr Shatskih

Two objects cannot occupy the same space at the same time.  It is a simple concept but one that IBM hopes to work around using its technology to squeeze more baggage into an already overflowing Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam. Schiphol is one of the top airports in the world (the 5th largest in Europe), handling […]

Hopper Building Advanced Travel Search System

Aleksandr Shatskih

Hopper, a full-text search engine for travel, is now in early alpha testing for its new natural-language-based search technology.  The company is the brainchild of Frederic Lalonde and Joost Ouwerkerk; Lalonde is also the chairman of Tnooz.  The developers working on the project are former Expedia geeks, and the tool they are trying to create […]

Google People Finder Helps Locate Japan Quake Victims

Aleksandr Shatskih

The powerful earthquake that rocked Japan and sent 30-foot-high tsunamis crashing into the shores has left many travelers in the region disoriented, frightened, and, in some cases, missing loved ones.  Google is now featuring its “People Finder” once again, which has helped some local residents and travelers in the area locate each other. The interface […]

Sabre Launches AgentStream Germany With Resounding Thump

Phil Butler

In travel news from Germany, online travel giant Sabre Group has announced the launch of a social networking platform here in Germany. AgentStream is theoretically designed for travel agents in Germany to be able to engage the social web, at least this is what the over four thousand global participants at AgentStream hope. But aside the obvious PR push of this, is the platform really all that social? It looks more like a push to keep up with Travelport than anything.

Bing-Kayak: Travel Search or Dumb Meets Dumber?

Phil Butler

The still raging war for online travel supremacy continues with news from Microsoft and Kayak. The pending sale of ITA to Google has spurred some fairly ridiculous allegiances and deals, not the least of which is the latest Bing “slash” Kayak pairing. Let’s face it, Microsoft has already spent two king’s ransoms trying to beat Google, and now this?

Italy Welcomes Movolo: Point-of-interest Travel Booking

Mihaela Lica Butler

Movolo, the only search and booking engine that makes door-to-door travel booking a simple process across multiple places with or without an airport, has recently launched its Italian version.

US Airways Sabre Deal Calms Travel War Waters

Phil Butler

In airline travel news, US Airways just announced the signing of a multi year contract for full content distribution and merchandising with Sabre Travel Network. This latest news, pertinent to the ongoing wars between the various online agents and service providers, is at least a positive sign for global distribution players.

TripAdvisor & Others at HotelWebsiteMarketing Conferences

Phil Butler

HotelWebsiteMarketing.com has announced a series of conferences to take place across Europe in May and June, 2011. Also, TripAdvisor, Availpro.com, Meetingsbooker.com, reviewPro.com, TIG Global, and other leading travel companies have joined the conferences to speak and contribute. The focus will be on hotel sales, marketing, revenue and e-commerce, among the many other topics.

Stay.com Lets Users Roll Their Own Travel

Phil Butler

Norwegian travel startup Stay.com release their version 2.3. As a mid-term development release, what Stay offered up was fairly significant. Stay.com affords users unparalelled tools for building, sharing, and printing their own personal travel literature, and great hotel deals as well.