Adam Healey's Hotelicopter, which launched in a blaze of YouTube fakery in April 1 2009, has unveiled the latest tool to spread its message onto other websites - albeit those at the longer end of the travel tail. The Hotels To Go service works by allowing publishers that have content sites or pages for specific destinations to customise their own search widget.... Read More

Most popular travel websites in the UK for the week ending November 21 2009. Data includes Top Ten travel search terms and the Top Ten Agency, Airline and Destination/Accommodation sites.... Read More

Deals publisher Travelzoo is to carry out a major shake up at the top of the business next year with current European vice president Chris Loughlin taking over as chief executive. Loughlin will replace Holger Bartel who is moving to become chairman of the company. Current chairman and brother Ralph Bartel will step down and move to a board director position. The transfer of power will take place on 1 July 2010 in what Travelzoo is calling a "proactive and transparent" succession plan.... Read More

SEO tip #3 - Writing unique, useful copy: Integrate your PPC and SEO by using PPC data to find the keywords for your best converting destinations, or destinations with traffic/ranking potential and optimise these pages individually. Ensure that optimised copy is genuinely useful for users – while it is important to write for the search engines, content should also be tailored for your customers and prospects.... Read More

TripIt introduced a free Android app, which enables travelers to view their itineraries; link to airlines, hotels and restaurants; and make calls directly from their itineraries in their Android devices. TripIt already had, and recently upgraded, its iPhone app, and is testing a Blackberry app, which TripIt hopes to release before the end of 2009. Soon TripIt, TripCase, Dopplr, Traxo and Kayak, among other companies with itinerary-management solutions, likely will be all over all of the mobile platforms.... Read More

What you missed on Tnooz this week, Sunday 15 November to Saturday 21 November 2009. Read on to see the most commented articles, every other article this week, and the most commented articles of all time...... Read More

PPC tip #3 - Search seasonality: Search seasonality can be different from your sales seasonality. Use Google Insights to understand when search volumes peak and trough, and make sure you plan your budgets and visibility around these times.... Read More

I was waiting for my suitcase this afternoon in Terminal C at Newark Airport, having just arrived on a Continental flight from Orlando, where I attended the PhoCusWright conference, when I saw a sign on the luggage carousel. It cracked me up. If you want to retrieve "odd size items" like skis, boxes and car seats, you'll have to meander over to the "odd size area behind carousel 9," the sign reads. Hey, it sounds like a lot more fun than walking over to a normal-size area to retrieve your odd size items.... Read More

TripAdvisor next year plans to introduce summaries of a hotel’s reviews – a way to provide a quick highlight of the gestalt of the property and its amenities – as a means for consumers to avoid having to wade through hundreds, even thousands of user critiques about a single hotel. That news came from TripAdvisor president and CEO Stephen Kaufer as PhoCusWright president and CEO Philip Wolf conducted an “executive interview” with him on center stage on the final day of the PhoCusWright conference in Orlando. Kaufer noted that the Bellagio, for instance, has some 3,100 reviews on TripAdvisor, a daunting read for consumers interested in the hotel.... Read More

Dubai-based airline Emirates is behind an amazing new Apple iPhone application which acts as a translation tool by taking a picture of the handset users mouth and then animates to produce a range of phrases. Built to translate English into French, German and Arabic by Lean Mean Fighting Machine in London, the app is a bit rough around the edges and difficult to set up - but it works. Here is a demo video.... Read More

SEO tip #2 - Outsourcing and cheap SEO: Although it may seem an attractive prospect, cheap, outsourced SEO options often lack the skill and knowledge required to produce results. Outsourcing link building can be dangerous as links built too fast or from “bad neighbourhoods” can damage your visibility in the search engine results.... Read More

The Affinity Shopper project by Amadeus IT Group won the PhoCusWright Travel Innovation Summit top prize after beating off competition in the final round from Translations.com, Gliider and EveryTrail. A reasonably worthy winner, some are saying, and an unusual one given that many believe innovation comes primarily from smaller companies who have to throw their efforts into creating something new in order to challenge the status quo. Affinity Shopper is a classic skunkworks project from within one of the largest travel technology firms on the planet, so kudos to Amadeus for attempting to create something it, and some others, say is a game-changer.... Read More

I caught up with Expedia Inc. President and CEO Dara Khosrowshahi this afternoon, a couple of hours before he was scheduled to appear on center stage before all the attendees at the PhoCusWright conference in Orlando Nov. 19. I asked Khosrowshahi, who was decked out in a pinstripe suit as we sat outdoors in the Florida sun, whether he expected to be breaking any news in his "executive interview" with PhoCusWright President and CEO Philip Wolf later in the afternoon. Referring to a recent contract battle with Choice Hotels, Khosrowshahi said he didn't think so because "we've made enough news lately." Khosrowshahi declined to get into any of the contract details, but said the Choice contract is similar to deals with other chains, adding, "I was confident we'd get it done." He said he didn't expect to see any major disruptions as larger chains' contract renewals come up.... Read More

Cheapflights has stuck rigidly to its price comparison model for over a decade but it turns out that the UK-based firm, which has established successful websites in the US, Australia, Canada and elsewhere in recent years, is diving into metasearch at last. Tnooz understands chief executive Chris Cuddy will reveal his company's surprise move in a session at the PhoCusWright conference in Orlando later today. At this stage the company is remaining tight lipped as to exactly how it will move into what is already a busy metasearch arena, countries it will target, technology strategy and any associated marketing campaign.... Read More

Traxo, one of the companies featured in the PhoCusWright Travel Innovation Summit this week and a fledgling trip planning and itinerary management service, is one of many firms that suffers when the tech-heads at Facebook fancy a change. Founder and chief exec at Travo, Andres Fabris, fresh from unveiling his new company to the wider travel industry, says Facebook notified Traxo a few weeks ago that it would be changing the protocols associated with its Connect tool. Now this might sound a bit trivial to some but, as Fabris admits: "It's a pain the butt."... Read More