Rolling back the years...
On 16 January 2012:
Could new top level domains provide funding for tourism organisations?
"As we enter a brave new world of top-level domain names (TLDs), brought upon by the recent approval and registration process from ICANN, what are the opportunities for DMOs and CVBs?"
A genuine question from one of writers, Troy Thompson, who wondered how the plan to release new domain name extensions would impact destination marketing.
In theory, Thompson said, TLD (top-level domains) could have a help tourism boards if the theory that a .london extension, for example, would "immediately signal an official site".
However, theoretically the .travel domain extension "should have been a success". "Remind me, how is that going?" he asks pointedly.
Since the article was published, there hasn't exactly been the rush some (SOME) were predicting when it comes to registering new TLDs.
It turns out that the two of the most obvious travel-related extensions, .fly and .hotel, caught the attention of Google and Booking.com respectively - but as for an onslaught of new words featured after the dot in web addresses?
Not really...
On 16 January 2011:
Google travel posters will need little editing post-ITA Software deal
"Google is pushing its Chrome browser in a major way in the UK at the moment, with a high-profile poster campaign on the rail and London Underground network."
As Google waited (probably not very much, in reality) nervously for the US Department of Justice to give the thumbs-up to its plan to acquireITA Software, European travellers were reminded via a poster campaign that the search monster's fledgling Chrome browser would help speed up flight search.
Perhaps the copywriters in Google's marketing department (or its ad agency) were given a hint as to what the release of Flight Search in September of the same year would initially (and, arguably, only) be congratulated for - it's speed.
Meanwhile...
Skyscanner bought door-to-door travel search startup Zoombu for an undisclosed fee. This worked out rather nicely for its co-founders, Rachel Armitage and Alistair Hann, as they are now product director and chief technology officer respectively at the UK-based metasearch engine.