When you just can’t get no satisfaction

This is not really a technology post, but since I have received over a dozen comments from disgruntled individuals complaining about either Travelocity or TripAdvisor, I thought it was appropriate to write this article. At the PhoCusWright 2007 Conference in Orlando, I had the opportunity to listen to some pretty high profile speakers and CEOs like Stephen Kaufer from TripAdvisor, Michelle Peluso from Travelocity, and others.  I wrote reviews and summaries of all these sessions and posted them to my blog.  Since that time, thanks to the effectiveness of blogs and the search power of Google,... Read more »

Steve Barnhart, CEO President Orbitz: Economics of the Long Tail

As a technologist primarily interested in the effects of systems on the trailing end of the long tail, I found Mr. Barnhart’s presentation at PhoCusWright Orlando 2007, one of the more relevant. Although Orbitz is a huge player in the in the travel distribution game, it is relatively small compared to the other big two, Expedia and Travelocity. The following is a summary of Mr. Barnhart’s presentation and a some points that I feel are of particular interest to SME operators. First of all, there are three big trends happening with travel product creation and distribution on the Internet: There... Read more »