An intelligent travel assistant

It was way back in 1985 I first began exploring the use of AI expert systems to automate the travel process. At that time a close friend worked for Mad Intelligent Systems in Santa Clara California. I was at United Airlines and I already had a thirst for emerging technology. I believed that automating the travel process would be made easier. This belief was reinforced when I viewed the Knowledge Navigator video that was presented by John Scully of Apple at MacWorld in 1989. I also have spoke about intelligent agents for travel in my blog post from October 2006

Technology Review (published by MIT) cites Intelligent Software Assistants being one of the major trends to watch in 2009. In that article it mentions a new Silicon Valley startup named Siri which is a spin off of research done at SRI International for the DOD.

When online travel was first introduced, the theme promoted by many OTAs was an automated travel agent. Of course this was nothing more than marketing spin as no OTA uses expert systems to enhance the travel planning and booking process. In addition firms such as Rearden Commerce, Trip Chiill and Manticpoint all have used the marketing theme of an intelligent travel assistant. I applaud their efforts, but I still believe the ultimate travel assistant that can act like the Knowledge Navigator is still unrealized and I am hopeful with firms such as Siri, true intelligent travel assistants will emerge over the next few years.

Yelp deleting negative reviews for a fee?

Some reports have surfaced from local media about complaints from local merchants that Yelp is willing to remove negative reviews for a fee. I do not know whether these reports are accurate and reflect an overall Yelp strategy or whether there are rogue Yelp! sales reps offering this service to boost their own volumes. It should be noted that Yelp denies these allegation and states that their reps don't even have the ability to edit reviews.

There is a challenge at any Web 2.0 site to balance the open submission of user reviews with the need to police the reviews to avoid companies from trashing their competitors. As user feedback volumes increase and become more instantaneous with consumers s reading or leaving reviews through their mobile devices, managing review contact will become even more challenging. Location based services will continue to expand and promoting discounts at local restaurants is a key service desired by frequent travelers per our recent PhoCusWright research:

Eyeglasses by Zenni Optical

One of the most important organs for human is the eyes, if you have eye problems or you are not confident with your eyes then wear a glass eye is one of the answer. Many people spend hundreds and even thousands of dollars for his eye care likes to choose a frame design that suitable with their personality and lifestyle or add prescription lenses with a high-tech coating. But why should spend a lot of money if you can get it all with the cheap price. 

According to an article from The New York Times titled Seeing Straight Without Breaking the Bank, if you want a cheap pair of eyeglasses, just try zennioptical.com, which sells generic frames, including lenses with anti scratch coating online from $ 8, that is the cheapest offer at this time considering the frame average price is $ 118 on the eye care market.  

So many models of eyeglasses you can select, eyeglasses with single vision lens, tinted sunglasses lens, sunsensor (potochromic) lens, bifocal lens and progressive lens. To me Acetate Frame #4412 is the best because the design is cool and stylish. So, if you want to find the best eyeglasses, zennioptical.com is the answer. What you are waiting for, just contact us immediately.

The Orbitwheel

New era for skateboard, maybe in the future skateboard is useless, the Orbitwheel is a brand new concept for wheeled sports. 

The design is simple: two feet, two wheels... and you're ready to go. The Orbitwheel's concept is basic, but with the wheels whirling around your feet, you are capable of countless tricks and maneuvers that can be as complex and creative as you can come up with.

With the Orbitwheel's minimalistic design, fun and transportation have never been so portable and convenient. The large wheel radius enables you to enjoy the Wheelblazer on a variety of different surfaces. The two thin, light wheels require no folding down or taking apart, making them easy to slip into a backpack or carry in your hand. And when you're ready to get going again, you don't need to fuss with buckles and flaps - just step into the hoops and take off.

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Find and Make Your Own Plates

Do you need an unique Private Number Plates, Personalized Number Plates, Number Plates or Car Registrations for your vehicle. Just visit this site, we will help you to find the suitable private number plates for you. Just enter your criteria private number plates that you want like your initials, name, nickname or car model at our search box. Enjoy your private number plates.

The Coolest Bridge

The coolet bridge In Leeuwarden, Netherlands they enjoy the comforts of a robotic overlord controlling a road bridge. It looks less like a bridge than a giant transformer crouching next to the river, holding down a thin spatula of road surface. From the road lines on the bridge arm it looks like cars just drive over the entire surface of the thing. It’s a smart solution for a small bridge, even though its size is a bit ungainly, and they somehow thought painting cute post-modern pastel colors was interesting.

 
  
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The Best Web Hosting Service

Find a competent web hosting service is not easy, many individuals and organizations are confused to decide which web hosting service is suitable to develop their business and company via the World Wide Web. Many things to look at in determining your web hosting service that is Assess Your Needs, Rate, Reliability and Speed, Data Transfer and Disk Space, Technical Support, Scripts and Special Features, Control Panel. Just visit this site, so many benefits that can be like host reliability, key features, uptime, bonus features, past and current user feedbacks, customer support, user-friendliness and hosting awards. Don’t forget to visit the blog section because a lot of information that you can get like industry news, trends, products and discussions.

Coolest Bluetooth Bracelet

Just use the Bluetooth bracelet as you would a normal Bluetooth device if you missed a few calls on your cell phone because it was on silent mode or you just didn't hear your mobile phone ring. it is very simple and very straight forward to use. The Bluetooth bracelet vibrates when you receive calls and displays the caller ID's number so you can decide whether or not you want to fish your phone out of your pocket or bag. If you are too busy to take calls then just press the function button to reject the call, thereby allowing you to pay more attention to your meeting. This Bluetooth bracelet not only looks cool, but also makes your busy life just that much easier to handle. For now though, this design works, the look may be simplistic, but it’s not gaudy either. You can purchase it for $26.

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How will Twitter impact the Travel Industry?

In spite of tough economic times, the microblogging site Twitter continues to receive funding. I have to admit that even though I have a passion around all things related to emerging technologies, I have had some trouble understanding how Twitter fits into the mix and how it can impact the travel industry. That recently became much clearer.

The concept of microblogging began in March of 2006 when Facebook introduced status updates. Twitter came along in July of 2006. In May of 2008, Twitter raised 15 million and another $35 million in February 2009. Considering current economic conditions, many VCs still see an opportunity.

In an article on Techcrunch Erik Schonfeld begins with this question. " What if you could peer into the thoughts of millions of people as they were thinking those thoughts or shortly thereafter?" He goes on to state that Twitter is the "crude beginnings of the "now" search engine."

Mining twitter feeds may provide some insight, but from my perspective the interesting thing about Twitter is not so much the content but the influence the individual can have on any given subject provided enough people follow the person's tweets. To me the main issue is around reputation within a social network.

Twitter's impact was felt in a big way in late 2007 when Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook was being interviewed by Sarah Lacy of Business Week at the South by Southwest Interactive conference. The audience did not like the way Ms. Lacy was treating Mr. Zuckerberg and they immediately let the world know through Twitter.

The relationship between Twitter and blogging is also important. A blog allows a subject to be discussed in detail. A tweet can point to a blog article. Also I believe Twitter on mobile devices is a great match between device and application. Even with the most advanced smartphones, writing a blog entry on a mobile device is challenging. Writing a tweet on a smartphone is easy.

So what impact will Twitter and its corporate enterprise siblings, such as Yammer, have on the travel industry? The bottom line is that if a given individual has a strong opinion about something, the world soon learns this view provided the person has established themselves as a thought leader in the an industry sector or within the company. This has obvious implications for both suppliers and intermediaries in the travel industry. Long gone are the days of responding to customer complaints through standard form letters. People will voice their opinion immediately on Twitter and if they have a strong following, a given travel vendor's product or service may be impacted by this influential person. As Twitter style applications come to the enterprise, influential tweets from key corporate players can also have a significant impact provided the person has a significant following within the company.

I have just begun to tweet myself and I hope to use the effort to provide some more instantaneous feedback on industry events.

It all about the App Stores

Apple launched its App store in March of 2008 permanently changing the way mobile applications are distributed. Today there are over 15,000 apps in the iPhone store, but there's a lot more to come....

New app stores have been announced from RIM Blackberry, T-Mobile and Google. There has also been some speculation that both Microsoft and Nokia may be launching apps stores.
So what does this mean to the travel industry? Sometime in the not to distant future we may be looking at over 100,000 downloadable applications available from a variety of sources. The percentage of applications that fall into the travel, location based services and navigation categories will likely be high. The travel industry needs to create applications today for the current app stores from Apple, RIM Blackberry and T-Mobile. These apps should not simply be retreads of their current Website but include innovative ways to combine location, context and personalization into delivering unique value to the business and leisure traveler.