Akamai: "How Secure Is The Internet"

I ran across this the other day and thought it was interesting so thought I would post it:

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In addition to the more well-known threats such as viruses and "phishing" (the practice of sending bogus e-mails purportedly representing a business in an attempt to get access to a person's password and account), Leighton described the following problem.

* Denial of service attacks. In a "denial of service attack," a Web site's IP address is bombarded with traffic in an attempt to overwhelm the infrastructure managing the site. "Bad guys," Leighton explained, can use armies of "bots" - computers controlled, often unbeknownst to their owners, after having been infected with a virus or a worm - to launch denial of service attacks. Such an attack can be targeted at a company or more broadly. For example, InformationWeek reported on February 6, 2007, that on that day a denial of service attack "nearly took down" three of the Internet's 13 so-called root servers, temporarily slowing the three servers. Though the attack did not have a significant effect on Internet endusers, what would happen if a denial of service attack ever actually succeeded in bringing down all 13 of the Internet's root servers? Were that ever to occur, it wouldn't take long before "your browser wouldn't be able to go anywhere; you wouldn't be able to send e-mail. Nothing on the Internet would work," Leighton said.

* "Pharming." "Pharming," Leighton explained, often exploits a weakness in the DNS, an Internet protocol that allows a "bad guy" to tell a device known as a name server, of which there are millions, that it owns the IP address of an organization such as a financial institution. The hacker will then receive the traffic from that name server meant to go to the financial institution, and the hacker can then send that traffic to a bogus Webpage that looks like the financial institution's own sign-in page. In the process, Leighton explained, criminals can gain password and account information. What's more, the user may not realize what has happened. Leighton added that another type of "pharming" can use a different Internet protocol known as BGP protocol, to siphon off some of the traffic intended for a given site to a bogus site, again in an attempt to gain password and account information.

More troubling still are the larger implications of these techniques if applied against a nation rather than for commercial gain. For example, Leighton noted that one worry is if terrorists could gain account and password information to access critical infrastructure, such as the nation's utilities system.
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Link to article here.

Google & Friends need more power!

Alright remember the mentions in my posts about Google put buildings and server farms near powerplants? This was in Google vs MicroHoo? and in Consumer Computing Services.

Now there is evidence that Microsoft, Yahoo! and Ask.com have done the same thing along the Columbia River in Washington State, and Google is credited with starting this new "arms race".
Here is the article from Harpers with more details. It's entitled: "Keyword: Evil"

With a title like that, this article is obviously targeting Google's efforts. It is written by Ginger Strand who is the author of "Inventing Niagara: Beauty, Power, & Lies".

Google's recently announced plans "to develop a gigawatt of new renewable energy" is questioned as they also have many other negotiations to draw energy direct from the grid (near power stations) at a lower cost. The article also puts questions on Google's tactics of getting tax breaks, state givebacks and subsidized power: "YouTube is bankrolled by us."

Well, we ARE getting gmail, Google Docs, YouTube, Picasa, Blogger, etc without paying upfront. These things are worth something...

The "arms race" points to all these companies' need to "compete to offer software, music, and videos over the Web in the new era if 'cloud computing'."

"Even if Google offsets its own energy use with green power or carbon credits, it cannot guarantee that its competitors will do the same. The company's motto is perhaps due for an addendum: 'Lead others not into temptation'."

This is not realistic. It is capitalism no matter what their current or future motto says. They have to remain competitive and that means on costs as well as services.

This is a great article for highlighting these issues but there are no solutions. (Nuclear anyone?).

"American data centers consumed more power than American televisions." Scary thought, but less people are watching TV now right? And they are buying Plasma TVs and LCD TVs which hog up less energy.

SIDENOTE: Heard from the last Web Wednesday Singapore - "The new color of the Green movement is blue.".

eMarketer Confirms That Mobile Users Don't Surf Internet

Finally, there is some concrete evidence to back up my post regarding PhocusWrong's prediction of "Mobile Travel: The Time Is Now".

eMarketer has published research data about how mobile users use their phone (besides talking on it - of course!).


Just look at the data.... 11% in the US, 16% in the UK, 7% in Canada....

So how many of these people will conduct a financial transaction on the teeny weeny little mobile screen? And input their credit cards, first name, last name, address, email address and phone number?

At best, they are just Googling for some quick info. Except in the UK, where they surf and download pornography for their mobile background and view triple X-rated clips over 3G. In Asia, the same is done but via freebie Bluetooth rather than expensive 3G.

Japan - I hear - is the exception. People buy stuff via their mobile ALL THE TIME. That's because the phone companies provide an interface and a payment gateway. You don't have to enter all the above information in frigging Kanji. They just click "confirm" (or whatever) and they are billed via their mobile operator.

I wonder if Amazon is suing the Japanese Telcos for the "one click purchase" patent infringement. Maybe that is why no one else in the US or UK is doing this... They are afraid of being sued by Amazon.

Hahahahah.. yeah right. That's it, that's the reason. Uh huh... Sure.

PhocusWright: "Mobile Travel: The Time Is Now"

I ran across this little blurb on HospitalityNet.org.

Lead-in quote: "Industry pundits have been touting the future promise of mobile travel for years. In 2008, that future will become a reality."

yada yada yada....

"Mobile ad revenues are expected to skyrocket in the coming years—a phenomenon that many travelers will welcome."

Consumers will welcome ads on their mobile? Possible - if my mobile provider does not charge me an arm and a leg for data roaming charges, or roaming SMS text fees.***

"The PhoCusWright Travel 2.0 Consumer Technology Survey indicates that ..."

Ah hah! The soft sales pitch for the survey. (i.e. "soft" = no hyperlink to purchase the report). Or as we used to say it in the TV industry "Product Placement". I am cool with that.

Continuing: "... indicates that 30% of travelers would like to receive special offers during their trips via their mobile devices about local restaurants and activities."

Well we are talking about users receiving info and offers WHILE ON THEIR TRIP. Us hoteliers, airlines, and online travel agents (which makes up a huge chunk of the travel industry) would prefer users to get offers and info BEFORE THEY MAKE THEIR TRIP and while they are planning their trip.

So we are talking mobile, and fairly immediate, information (dare I call it "M-Info" since they are using "m-commerce"). Information that would influence their behavior in the short term and within their immediate locale. This would be a boon for the local businesses that thrive on the traveling public, so - yeah - I might find this useful as a traveler. My hotel F & B outlets might even find this very useful to boost their walk-in traffic. But as a direct travel supplier - whose bread and butter depends on how they get there and where they sleep - I don't see how this M-Info will help me increase my revenue.

And from an "e"-commerce perspective, I still don't see how this can be termed as "m-commerce". Are people actually booking online? Will people type in their credit card numbers and CVV2 codes into their M-devices (and their full name, address, and contact info)? All this on a tiny screen (or even on a huge, lovely, awesome iPhone screen)?

And this will be in 2008? Call me a skeptic or Luddite, but I don't think we are on the "tipping point" yet.

"This interest will grow as more appealing, media-rich offerings become available."

Ibid on the *** above.
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Anyhow, I certainly do see the value in location-based marketing onto mobiles, but I see this less of a "travel" phenomenon than a platform for targeted marketing to local users (i.e. already residents of the city/town). The "travel" angle does not work for me. Just my 2 cents worth. Sorry, PhocusWrong.

Numbers of Online Travel Customers Are Declining

According to the NY Times, "Travel Sales Still Growing, but Numbers of Customers Are Declining". See here.

It certainly sounds alarming, but maybe because alarming sells newspapers. But let's check out the highlights....

1) According to a recent survey of more than 60,000 Internet users in the United States by Forrester Research, a technology consulting firm, 9 percent fewer people booked travel online this year than in 2005.
JOE> But outside the US, the trend is the other way around. Europe is not yet as mature as the US. The Asian (with 3 billion people) are still getting online and are just beginning their shift from offline to online.

2) PhoCusWright found that among travelers with access to the Internet, the percentage who usually book travel online dropped to 62 percent at the end of last year from 68 percent in 2005, while those who say they usually arrange travel offline increased to 31 percent from 25 percent during the same period.
JOE> Interestingly enough, PhocusWright also published a report showing that between 2005 and 2006, less % of people were Shopping & Buying Travel Online. Increasing were people who Shop& Buy Travel Offline and people who Shop Online & Buy Offline. See below.


3) Industry revenues are still strong, mostly because those consumers who book travel online are doing more of it. According to the Forrester survey, the average online booker said he or she would spend 50 percent more on travel this year than in 2005.
JOE> So what does this mean? People who are online savvy are booking more and people with lesser patience or lower attention span are booking less? Are older people dropping off and younger people staying on and booking more?

4) Online travel executives say part of the reason for the dearth of innovation is that the online travel reservation systems are largely extensions of technology built in the 1960s.
JOE> Are we talking the GDS, PMS and CRS? Some of that is true enough, but the consumers are filtered and do not see a lot of that technology any more with middleware and web applications in the middle. On the contrary, meta search engines, like bezurk.com, and sidestep.com are giving consumers a lot of insight that they never had before.

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But really, the marketplace is overcrowded with OTAs and their affiliates and their spam. Consumers are becoming disenchanted with the intermediaries who are not able to provide the level of customer service that a supplier can. For example, if you book with an OTA and your friend booked directly with the supplier, who do you think has an easier time change or amending a reservation?

It would be very interesting to see if brand direct bookings have increased because consumers find it easier and more reliable to book direct rather than with an online travel agent.

Also, how many of these people who stopped buying online still research online? Looking at the destination and then finding out what is a "good" rate. They may not book online, but it would be pretty stupid not to at least Research online...

A Day @ Ecommerce Expo in London (Olympia)

I spent most of yesterday at the Ecommerce Expo here in London. I was here in London for business in any case and it was a good coincidence that the expo was here at the same time and was only a 15 minute walk from the Millennium & Copthorne office in Kensington.

First thoughts was that it was a small show. Olympia seems to be quite a large venue and we got slightly lost because signage was not very good. We initially went to the wrong hall - as did other people so we did not feel so stupid. (Note to EC&O who runs this exhibition venue, you need to get on search engine marketing - big time. The site is alright - once you find it. And you need a good domain like olympiavenues.co.uk rather than eco.co.uk.)

Anyhow, despite being a "small" show, there was a lot of buzz in the air. The companies there were mostly relevant and you had the anchor exhibitors like Google (huge booth plus the Google Academy "classroom" downstair which was 4 times the size of their booth).

So what did I find interesting to me?

WebCredible - With the recent website relaunch, I would love to run some usability test to compare with the EyeTracking studies we did last year. They seem like a good outfit. Asked them to meet me on Friday as I was leaving that evening. Let's see what happens.

Gomez - Gomez's describes themselves as "a leading provider of on-demand web application experience management solutions, helping the world's top businesses ensure quality web experiences for their customers". Yada yada yada... cutting through the clutter: "Internet performance monitoring service". I had been thinking about using a service like Gomez to monitor my site's performance from the end-user's perspective. Akamai had recommended them as a 3rd party independent monitoring service, and it had been in the back of my mind to call them up. But hey, they were here and did a decent demo. Please call me.

Omniture - OK so we already use them. I have been seeing on my Omniture Dashboard about TouchClarity product and wanted to find out more. Interesting stuff actually. Using information from their tags to tell our servers to deliver targeted content. So it can be simple like providing specific promotions to people coming from specific geographic locations. Or, in theory, marrying that with your CRM to provide personalized customer visits. Anyhow, for M & C, it probably at least 2009 stuff.

SEO Junkies - I had a call from these guys a few weeks ago so did prearrange to meet them. They focus solely on search engine optimization - no pay-per-click, no advertising, no creative. (though their parent company Advantys does some of this agency stuff.). It's a good strategy since SEO is so paramount to eCommerce strategies and is the neglected in favor of PPC. And yes, there are tons of companies offering to optimize PPC campaigns. I stayed away from those (and.. oh.. yeah.. by the way, these PPC optimizer also do SEO on the side... yeah right).

Google - of course I have to pay homage to Google. They shouted a lot about Google Checkout and how "Sellers get free processing on all orders in 2007". There is also a plan in place where for every dollar you spend on Adsense you get ten dollars of free processing value. Something like that. I asked about Google Checkout for my hotels since I am looking at a prepayment product. Alas, Google CheckOut does not service the travel sector as a policy. They are getting a lot of requests.. something like half of their requests are from the Travel sector, but the company policy right now is no travel. Don't know exactly why. Is there a lot of fraud? Is it the "mail order" merchant thing?

There are many free seminar, but they are mostly pitches for the companies that are presenting. That's actually fine, but of the 4 seminars I attended, only 1 was worth the time. It's alright to sell your product, but the delivery and the pitch could be a lot more engaging. I won't mention any names.

It's a two-day event, but one day was enough. We all have work to do!

Joe... Out.

Travelers now have A.D.D.

That's stands for Attention-Deficit Disorder. According to a study by Akamai Technologies and Babson college, "one-third of travel consumers abandoned their online search after waiting for more than four seconds for their results to load".

Lucky our website is on Akamai and we are about to bump up our service level to Dynamic Site Accelerator. Damn that sounds sexy doesn't it. Vroom... Vroom....

We are going to be as sexy as InterContinental Hotels Group as Bryson Koehler, Vice President, Global Distribution Technology said: "Akamai provides us with a complete e-business solution that addresses our requirements for 100 percent availability of critical Web, Voice and Web Service applications, massive reach to support worldwide customer demands, and the use of an extended infrastructure to support widely varying traffic on demand."

As sexy as Pegasus, Steve Lapekas, Chief Technology Officer is quoted: "Leveraging Akamai's Web Application Accelerator will further allow us to increase speed and availability, while reducing infrastructure load and increasing SaaS application adoption of our next-generation travel reservation platform."

Maybe they will quote me too, after I get the makeover to become sexier like the Hilton Brand.

One Page Booking Engines

You have seen it at iHotelier and others. While a One-Page Reservation Process may seem simple and straight-forward, it does incorporate business logic and workflow. From the users’ point of view, they will only access one webpage during the whole booking process, which means this page has to be quite dynamic. The Reservations Workflow will have to be designed and implemented to guide users through the process. Users should also be provided with seamless integration with other internal systems as well as any relevant third party systems.

One-Page Reservation Process

In a typical multi-page booking process, a user may enter the reservations process from a number of different points: from the hotel’s website (using the Quick Reservations functionality), or from a link provided by the sales team, or from a promotional or advertising campaign. But once the user is in the reservations page, he/she typically follows through a linear booking process that loads one webpage at a time and then presents a summary at the end. This can be a tedious and slow process and making changes mid-flow can also be quite a hassle. Even increasing the reservation server’s speed and bandwidth can not remove the user’s perception that they have to wait while another page is being loaded.

A one-page reservation process eliminates the need for loading a new webpage every step and also allows users to see each step in the process and make changes quickly and easily at any time. Typically the user interface is a web-browser friendly client-side application that integrates with a CRS or GDS to get availability, room types, rates, rate descriptions, etc. as well as to communicate back to these systems with other essential reservations information. This application can be developed with JavaScript, however Macromedia Flash is a better environment for this kind of development as it is: 1) more secure, 2) a more robust development tool, and 3) able to provide a more user friendly, interactive experience.

The First Generation of One-Page Reservations

The first generation of this type of one-page reservations processes is provided by companies like iHotelier and SynXis. An example of the iHotelier interface is Hotel Nikko Düsseldorf (is it still there?); see Figure 1 below. An example of the SynXis interface is the Aztec Hotel & Spa Bristol (); see Figure 2. Users can select dates from a calendar, select from available rooms and rates, view photography and description of the room, and enter their details including credit card information – all on one page.

While many of the benefits of one-page reservations are there, these interfaces are platform specific and are more applicable for individual hotels rather than a hotel group. They require the hotel to use specific PMS or to allocate inventory into a separate database that is accessed by the one-page reservations process.

Figure 1 - Nikko Düsseldorf’s iHotelier One-Page Reservation

Figure 2 - Aztec Hotel’s SynXis One-Page Reservation

Users Guide

One thing lacking from the first generation one-page reservations interfaces above is a step-by-step guide through the process for visitors. To display the whole interface immediately can be daunting to a user that has never been to the site before or has not used one-page interfaces before. BookingEdge has a demo of a one-page interface that leads a user through the process; see Figure 3 below for a screen capture of the demo.

However this “guide” function should be able to be turned off by advance users and regular visitors.

Figure 3 - BookingEdge.com One-Page Reservation with Users Guide

iPhone Activated and Unlocked!!!!!

OK so this post is not really about hotel or ecommerce, but I am just so siked or is it "psyched".

I am in New York arrived here on Sunday 9th September. I read just before I came that there was a software unlock for the iphone that was coming out on the 10th that would allow you to use the iphone on other carriers besides AT&T. This was done by iphonesimfree.com

The articles are here:
http://www.engadget.com/tag/iphonesimfree
http://edition.cnn.com/2007/TECH/09/01/apple.iphone/


....Though neither are necessary very dependable news sources (DOH!).

Well I figured it this was true, I would buy an iPhone and try my worst. So on Monday I bought the iPhone from the flagship Apple Store in the Big Apple:



So for the last 3 nights I have been trying to get it to work!

1st night (Monday): I activated my phone with iActivator (UPDATE: iActivator has been updated with a better software iNdependence. Use this instead.) This is the first step and allows you to modify the software on the iPhone to let the phone turn on. Because when you first get it, the iphone wont let you do anything!!! The iActivator will let you have most functionality except phone and youtube. (ipod, photo, synch, camera, etc are fine.) So far so good.

2nd & 3rd nights (Tues & Wed): The second step is to unlock the SIM software so that you can use a non AT & T SIM card. I used http://www.iphoneworldwideunlock.com/ and paid USD50. There is a free version as well at http://www.freeiphoneunlock.com/unlock/, but I did not want to risk it and it looks more troublesome. Step 2 takes a while as you are trying to figure out the tech stuff. And I had to do mine twice before it worked. Also, the iphoneworldwideunlock takes a few days to activate as they had to load your IMEI into a server.

BUT last night, it happened... I succeeded. Now I own an iPhone running on Singapore's MobileOne network (roaming currently of course)!!!!!

The iPhone is reeaalllly suhhh-wheeet. Have fun hacking.. I dare ya. (PS. Now you know why I haven't posted anything in the last few days. I have been ..um.. very busy.)

UPDATE: After being unlocked for a couple of days, I turned my iPhone off last night. When I powered it on this morning, I could not get any signal. so I searched around trying to understand what's going on. so what happened was that the "Activation" (Step 1 above) was somehow corrupted, but the phone still turned on and had basic functionality. The problem was NOT the "Unlock" (Step 2). so I plugged the phone back in and turned on iNdependence. I then did the same Activation steps (no need to Jailbreak again) and everything was back to normal.

LESSON: do not throw iNdepence away after the first install. Keep it on your Mac as you may need it later for things like this.

ALSO: I upgraded to iTunes 7.4.1 today so the above is compatible with this version.

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Widgets For Blogs (and other sites?)

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Here's a link to a bunch of web 2.0 widgets that can be added to a blog or any site.

I took a look through and added some to this blog:

SnapShot takes all outbound links like this one and gets a preview of the site and loads it here. So you can see the site before you click on it. It's pretty easy to implement.

Digg - I also added the digg link to each article so you will have seen it above this article. So dig it if you like it.

3Jam is a widget that you can put on your site to allow anyone to send you an SMS Text Message to your mobile. You are only charged for the SMS from your mobile provider. 3Jam does not charge anything. Its a pretty neat product. I am thinking that this can be used on our website for restaurant reservations.

LinkedInaBox allows you to display your Linkedin Profile to your website. It is Flash based and allows people to view your linkedIn profile without leaving the page.

Cool stuff.

Skype for hotel websites (?)

There is an interesting discussion (login required) on WIWIH regarding putting in Skype into your hotel websites. It was sparked off by a posting on Guillaume Thevenot's blog posting on Skype the Chelsea. Here's my 2 cents worth.


With the explosive growth of Skype since it launched in 2003 (500 million downloads!!) and was bought by eBay for USD 3 billion, the inclusion into a hotel website seems like a "no-brainer". Then again "no-brainer" could mean >>>>>>

So there are a couple of major things holding it back:

1) The quality of a Skype call is inconsistent. Hey, I have used it for years now and have a SkypeOut and set up a SkypeIn account with an LA telephone number for my grandfather in Vietnam (so that his kids in the US can call a US number and reach Ben Tre, Vietnam). I put in a WiFi Skype phone so that he does not even need a computer. But using it is a pain; it's like using a CB radio: "10-4 Grandpa. How are you, grandpa? Joe, out"... And the quality is usually bad. I guess if you are in the US calling the US, or UK calling UK, it might be better. But as a business/customer service line?... That can be annoying. But then again, it's more or less FREE! (unless you use SkypeIn or SkypeOut). And it is better than having no toll-free line, right?

2) Process - To install and set up Skype in your reservations office or call center, you need to train up people and also requires new processes. And we all know change is bad. Look at what happened to MJ:


3) The biggest problem may be the hotels' IT and Finance. In my former life selling online solutions to hotels, I have come across many hotel groups. Here are some points that are relevant to the adoption of Skype and similar technologies:

* Most hotels' IT infrastructure is pretty outdated. Old computers, old servers, old hubs and old switches. Some of these computers used by staff do not even have sound cards. (Saved that $25 dollars a few years ago didn't we?)
* But mainly old mindset. The hotel IT managers will not let Instant messaging, Adobe Flash, and other plug-ins and programs be installed. They also notoriously filter content. There are of course good reasons for doing these things, but I feel that there is a certain element of overzealous control issues at play. Ever heard of CITRIX? 'nuff said...
* Hotels' IT are also very tight on the bandwidth. This may be less true of US hotels now, but many hotels are still very stingy on net access by their employees. Probably related to the point above.
* Skype aside, there are other technologies out there worth exploring... eStara (inbound call routing) and LivePersons (chats on website) are a couple of things I would love to have. But then.... IN COMES THE BEANCOUNTERS.

Corporate issues aside, Skype makes a lot of sense and seem more doable for individual hotels or small groups that have savvy IT and finance people, or at least ones that can drag their IT and finance teams kicking and screaming into the 21st century...


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Web 2.0 Technology

So Tim O'Reilly popularized the term "Web 2.0" in 2004. Many people talk about Web 2.0, and the need for businesses to get on it. They talk about technologies like AJAX, XML, RSS, "mash ups", widgets, blogs and vlogs. They rave about community and social networking sites like MySpace, FaceBook, and Friendster and sites that encourage sharing like YouTube, Flickr, and Blogspot.

So on this post, let's talk Web 2.0 Technologies. First thought? It ain't new.

XML (eXtensible Markup Language)
Initially defined in 1998 by the World Wide Web Consortium (w3c.org), this is essentially a data communication protocol so that different systems can talk to one another. According to Wikipedia, "Its primary purpose is to facilitate the sharing of structured data across different information systems, particularly via the Internet". Groups of users - and in particular, industries - can come together to determine how to label their data so that their systems can exchange information easily. The labels or "tags" look something like this:

Different industries have come up with their own standard XML specifications - Like the OTA XML by the OpenTravel Alliance (whose members range from Accor to Hertz to Expedia to American Airlines to Pegasus). XML is not particularly new but it is important and is sometimes lumped in as Web 2.0.

AJAX (Asynchronous Javascript And Xml)
Wikipedia: Ajax, or AJAX, is a web development technique used for creating interactive web applications. As you can see by the unabbreviated version, AJAX is just Javascript and XML being used together. Javascript has been around since 1995 when Netscape launched their 2nd version. Proper implementation allows metasearch sites like Kayak.com to display information as it comes in from different data source. You do not have to wait for the page to finish before interacting with the content. Google made this technique popular when incorporated it in their Google Maps allowing users to pan in different directions by clicking and dragging the map and having the new maps load up without refreshing the whole page. So 1995 and 1998 technology? As I said, it ain't new. Just the implementation.

RSS (Really Simple Syndication)
RSS is a name applied to a particular XML specification and its usage. Anyone can build an RSS "feed" by wrapping their data (news, offers, promos) around specific XML labels/tags standards for the information. A few developers started building readers for the feeds, and RSS took off as more and more online media started pushing their content out. The readers allow users to filter and customize the news/content that they get. RSS development started out as earlier as 1995 at Netscape and was more formalized in 2002.

YouTube
Well the technology seems new (founded in Feb 2005) and the company's meteoric rise shouts Web 2.0, but the technology is not new. The videos are using a Flash-based video player which has been around since 2002 (and Flash was developed by Macromedia back in 1997). What was really cool was that you could upload almost any kind of video format (MPEG, MPEG-2, QuickTime, MPEG4, avi, etc.) and it would convert it to Flash-video within minutes. These converters have been available in software applications and some online. But YouTube made it so easy to upload, convert AND SHARE, that it became ubiquitous.


Flickr
Flickr did the same for pictures what YouTube did for videos. A nicer interface to upload and edit pictures and a great way to share.

Blogs
A blog is nothing more than another website. The difference is the content, the genre...the way in which the content is written. It is a personal online diary of sorts, written informally and "off the cuff". There is no new technology. Blogger.com. WordPress, and Typepad are well-known today as companies that let people blog easily, but they are essentially content management systems (CMS). But these CMSes are so easy to use, they should really be "CMS for Dummies".

*********

Ultimately, Web 2.0 is not about new technology. There are no new discoveries. But there are plenty of beautiful implementation of existing technology that makes it so easy for people to create and share. It increased the user participation in online activities and created new business models.

(UPDATE) As Max Starkov wrote in a wiwih.com post, "Although the term suggests a new version of the World Wide Web, it does not refer to an update to Web technical specifications, but to changes in the ways software developers and end-users use the web as a platform."

But what does this mean to a business? To a company? To an industry? That's another blog entry for another day.

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302 & 301 Redirect Fun

Many of us who have engaged SEO consultants have often gotten the feedback or report that our site is not search engine friendly because we are using "302 redirects instead of 301 redirects". Any clarification by the consultants is however not very clear. Our IT administrators proceed to change the 302s to 301s, but either can not explain or don't understand how this is supposed to affect our search engine friendliness. Or if there are any other reasons why 302s are bad.

Before I get into this, let me give you some background. Firstly, my old website (I can whine about it now in public since it has been replaced last week!) was running on Lotus Domino. This fine product from IBM served as the webserver, content management system and database (non-relational of course). Secondly, our web analytics tool is Omniture, which is a great javascript based data collection system; their business model is ASP-based (Application service provider) so there are no hardware/software overheads.

Next let's get the w3.org official definition of the 302 and 301 redirects:

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10.3.2 301 Moved Permanently

The requested resource has been assigned a new permanent URL and any future references to this resource SHOULD use one of the returned URLs. Clients with link editing capabilities ought to automatically re-link references to the Request-URL to one or more of the new references returned by the server, where possible. This response is cacheable unless indicated otherwise.

The new permanent URL SHOULD be given by the Location field in the response. Unless the request method was HEAD, the entity of the response SHOULD contain a short hypertext note with a hyperlink to the new URL(s).

If the 301 status code is received in response to a request other than GET or HEAD, the user agent MUST NOT automatically redirect the request unless it can be confirmed by the user, since this might change the conditions under which the request was issued.

10.3.3 302 Found

The requested resource resides temporarily under a different URL. Since the redirection might be altered on occasion, the client SHOULD continue to use the Request-URL for future requests. This response is only cacheable if indicated by a Cache-Control or Expires header field.

The temporary URL SHOULD be given by the Location field in the response. Unless the request method was HEAD, the entity of the response SHOULD contain a short hypertext note with a hyperlink to the new URI(s).

If the 302 status code is received in response to a request other than GET or HEAD, the user agent MUST NOT automatically redirect the request unless it can be confirmed by the user, since this might change the conditions under which the request was issued.

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(302 has also been more clearly defined as "Moved temporarily")

Now we kinda understand the difference, why is 302 bad?

As it turns out, when the search engines hits a 302, they must index both sites. But it is being told that the content is temporary. So..

1) Should a search engine give a high rank to temporary information vs permanent information?
2) In the case of Google, how does it assign PageRank? To the first link which was redirecting to the second link and has no content? Or to the second link which is temporary?
3) Actually, since a 302 redirect does not pass "referrer" information to the second link, it can not credit the second link with pagerank of the first link.

Yes this get a little confusing for us as well as the search engines. So they don't like it.

In the case of my old website, Lotus Domino only does 302 redirects. This is a nightmare from the above perspective. It was also bad for our Omniture web analytics. Omniture operates as an application service provider (ASP); they host all the servers and reports and we implement some Javascript tracking codes on our pages. Not unlike Google Analytics. But because referrer information is not passed in a 302 redirect, our reports had a lot of "Typed/Bookmarked" traffic instead of actual Referrers.

As for 301, it just tells the search engines that this change is permanent, ignore the first link, and only look at the second link. Any PageRanks or scores should be directly attributed to the second link. Easy enough... As for Omniture, it passes through Referrer information so it's fine there as well.

Then again... ideally, we shouldn't use redirects at all.....

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Shockwave Flash vs. Javascript

Always a fun debate to have... (for us geeks that is).

On wiwih.com, a guy from TVTrip.com - a meta search engine out of the EU - was saying that "I just dont get it: most of 'cool flash effects' can be made with Javacript."

So here's my reply:
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New Javascript apps needs to be tested thoroughly to make sure they are compatible with all browsers and don't break up the page. Flash is - for lack of a better phrase - "self contained".

Functionally, Flash can do as much as Javascript if you know how to use ActionScript well (which is kinda like Javascript in any case).

Javascript is AJAX; the buzz word for the last 2 years. I see that your site - TVtrip - uses that extensively, as a Web 2.0 should. :-) AJAX is a better way to handle large amount of data streaming in. I am planning to use that for our booking engine interface next year.

Flash is easier to develop. Yep, any web agency can whip up a flash anime in a ... flash (hehehe). But most of them have very limited Javascript expertise beyond select boxes.

I noted that you use Flash for your destination map on your homepage as well, so functional flash has its place. But obviously once you hit the Google Maps, it's Javascript and AJAX or the highway.
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For the new Millennium & Copthorne site, we use Flash for the promotion banners on the main country homepages. However, if you look at the bottom, there are 4 slider bars. When you click on them, they slide up and displays info relevant to that slider tab. This is done using javascript layers. Each layer is like a new page and can have any components including Flash and video.

.... and probably NOT very SEO friendly either. You just can't have your cake and eat it too.

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User Generated Content: The Missing Link? Web 2.0 or Travel 2.0?

Hotelmarketing.com does a promo piece for EyeForTravel's The UK Young Professional & Online Travel Report with an article on UGC, um yes.. that's User Generated Content.

Interesting data nonetheless:
1) 72% say that consumer reviews have influenced their travel choice
2) 15.3% state they always use UGC for travel
3) 79.1% say they have actually used consumer reviews for travel before

See the article here.

I kinda have an issue with them labeling this as "Web 2.0 or Travel 2.0". According to EyeForTravel, the most popular UGC site is Expedia's Tripadvisor.com. But wait a sec, they have had their user feedback and ratings system up since 2000 - that's when they started. Ebay has buyer/seller ratings since inception as well. Amazon added this on around 2000 as well if not earlier. I think the first website to get UGC as the main USP was epinions.com in 1999. Their mission is "To help people make informed buying decisions."

So what's makes this Web 2.0 or Travel 2.0? Then again, what is "Web 2.0" and "Travel 2.0"?

- Is it technology (AJAX, XML, CSS)?
- Is it particular websites (Flickr, youtube, myspace, blogger)?
- Is it communities/social networking, or just new venture money?

We can point to kayak.com and bezurk.com and say that's "Web 2.0", but can we define it?

Let's check Wikipedia, shall we?

===
The phrase Web 2.0 refers to a perceived second-generation of web-based communities and hosted services — such as social-networking sites, wikis and folksonomies — which aim to facilitate collaboration and sharing between users. The meme became popular following the first Web 2.0 conference in 2004. O'Reilly Media titled a series of conferences around the phrase, and it has since become widely adopted.
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See the full entry here.

Interesting words: "perceived", "collaboration", "meme"

Ok, so whatever it is... What does it mean to business? What does it mean for the Travel Industry? What does it mean for Hospitality eCommerce?

That's what we want to know... and umm... and also how do we exploit it.

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Shockwave Flash & Monitor Resolutions for New Website

From a discussion on wiwih.com:

For what it's worth, here are some stats for Flash Plugin penetration and also monitor resolution for visitors to millenniumhotels.com in the first 7 months of 2007.

Shockwave Flash Penetration (98.5% for our visitors!)

(Sorry, but I don't yet have the breakdown of Flash by versions.)

Screen Resolution (over 85% of our visitors have resolutions wider than 800 pixels)


The above are why our newly launched site caters for 1024 width and uses more Flash. We also use javascript to supplement the flash animation, but that's mostly only on the homepage. Lots more SEO work to follow...


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