Gogobot, a social-powered travel service that launched a year ago, has raised $15 million led by Redpoint Ventures with Battery Ventures and the CrunchFund participating. Gogobot helps people plan their trips by tapping the recommendations and suggestions of their friends. Read more »
HipGeo aims to put all details related to your travel — photos, check-ins, comments — in one place with an app that passively keeps track of your movements. Afterward, you can easily create a slick, animated travel diary. Here’s what I found when I used it on a cross-country trip. Read more »
Where Google goes, people follow. Bruno Perez of Revpar Guru weighs in on Google’s excursion into the travel industry with Google Hotel Finder, seeing the move as a logical part of the company’s strategy to challenge established markets such as Facebook and Groupon. Read more »
Travel bookings giant Priceline.com is updating its iPhone app with a service that lets customers book hotels at the last minute. The company said Friday that its Tonight-Only Deals service for iOS will specifically target the 70 percent of last-minute hotel bookings it already sees. Read more »
The iPhone and Android app that helps you find day-of deals on hotels is expanding from a small number of major cities to last-minute vacation destinations. Hotel Tonight, currently in 23 major markets, is announcing 14 new, smaller markets where it will offer curated day-of deals. Read more »
Hipmunk, the San Francisco-based travel search startup, has finally brought its travel search application to the Android operating system. Hipmunk for Android, which for now only facilitates flight searches, is impressive because it retains all the slickness of the company’s web and iOS offerings. Read more »
Location, location, location: it’s the time-honored mantra of real-estate agents and retailers, but could just as well be applied to Google… Read more at paidContent »
With the rise of user-generated content, brands have faced challenges. People are talking about brands on social media sites in ways that brand managers can’t control and often can’t even detect. With 50 million reviews and counting, TripAdvisor is shaking the travel industry to its core. Read more »
This is a moving weekend for me so I am going to keep the list of recommendations to read this weekend very short. So without much ado, here are some posts that are worth reading this weekend. Read more »
Mobile is turning travel on its head, and much like it’s changing the way thousands of other companies do business, it’s also changing how Expedia thinks about its product. Instead of searching and booking travel, a mobile device can provide a concierge-like level of service. Read more »
A look at some of the big stories in mobile today:
» Google agreed to pay 33 percent more — $3 billion — than it originally off… Read more at paidContent »
A look at some of the big stories in mobile today:
» Intel is remaining committed to the MeeGo wireless OS, despite reports that… Read more at paidContent »
One of my personal “must have” free travel apps, Tripit, gained both an Android upgrade and an ad-free paid version on Thursday. Along with the news comes some interesting travel data from Tripit’s user base. Which do you think travels more for work or fun? Read more »
Russia’s biggest online commerce company, Ozon, is about to get bigger thanks to a huge injection of cash and ambitious plans to take its business to the next level. But is it biting off more than it can chew? Read more »
– Starz Digital Media: Mara Winokur is now SVP of digital media, business development and strategy at Starz Media — a position that makes… Read more at paidContent »
Hopper wants to make searching for travel options a more complete experience using big data tools, and it has raised millions to do it. Hopper lets users enter keyword searches, but it provides results far beyond those typically found in a keyword search. Read more »
There aren’t many things I love more than planning and going on trips. For my fellow iPhone-toting travelers, here are a few of my most relied upon iOS apps for planning a trip and to use while making your way around your destination. Read more »
Most travel search sites share pretty much the same layout: They’re cluttered with search boxes, radio dials, and drop-down menus galore, and of course, ads. Lots of them. Google’s new Hotel Finder has a refreshing approach. It’s clean, uncluttered, and totally sans ads. Read more »
Trover, the travel app aimed at sharing off-the-beaten-path discoveries, has formally launched out of limited beta. The app, which was initially available only on iPhone through Facebook Connect, is now also open as a web app on Trover.com and accessible to anyone with an email account. Read more »
Hipmunk, the hot flight-finding service, has added in-flight Wi-Fi as a new metric for travelers. Sure, this is an indication of how deep the web has sunk its talons into us, but working on flights has become pretty much the standard in many offices. Read more »
Travel search startup Hipmunk is bringing its super slick user interface (UI)– and arguably the web’s cutest mascot– to the iPad, just in time for the summer travel season. The San Francisco-based company has launched a custom iPad app and an update to its iPhone offering. Read more »
Since 1965, hard-core Grateful Dead fans have been camping out in America’s open fields and fairgrounds. Now, San Francisco startup Tripping is helping the band add community-service projects to the jam sessions as a way of expanding its peer-to-peer travel service. Read more »
During my recent conversation with licensed massage therapist Wimsey Cherrington about ways of avoiding repetitive strain injuries at work, she also suggested several tips for luggage handling, neck and back support, and exercises that will help avoid strains while traveling. Read more »
Kayak is now handling hotel bookings itself, rather than just referring customers to partner sites like Expedia and Orbitz. The move marks a significant turn as Kayak shifts from simply aggregating travel deal information into being a destination where users can complete their purchase. Read more »
Have a hankering to take a few days off and go somewhere? A new startup called Wanderfly, which launched today, wants to help inspire you. Type in your approximate travel dates, budget, duration and interests, and Wanderfly will serve up a set of glossy options. Read more »
Google says it has signed an agreement to acquire travel-information company ITA Software for $700-million, in a deal that has been widely rumored for some time. Other travel services such as Kayak and Microsoft’s Bing Travel use ITA’s data, and the deal could face anti-trust scrutiny. Read more »
On June 7, I embarked on a trip to Europe. I debated whether I wanted to take my iPad or my hackintosh’d Dell Mini 9. In the end, I went with the iPad. Read more »
It won’t be possible for me to disconnect entirely; I’ll need to be on call, and to have access to my work. But I want to carry as little as possible, and make the transition from the office to the train as painless as I can. Read more »
NileGuide is announcing the acquisition of the angel-backed Localyte, a participatory travel advice site that has had early success in engaging participation. The idea is for Localyte to help NileGuide scale up its travel advice coverage using free content to complement NileGuide’s local expert paid content. Read more »
I spent last week at a conference in San Francisco with many of my colleagues and community members from around the world, but the giant volcanic ash cloud over Europe put a damper on the final day of the conference. Read more »
