FunnelScope, a unique semantic and social travel search engine,  is making its unique semantic data and semantic approach available for license. The data is optimal for search engines, travel sites, and local search sites. The data is both compelling for driving conversion rates and SEO purposes. FunnelScope’s data is readily available for travel, but can also be customized for companies seeking to use FunnelScope’s approach for verticals other than travel.

FunnelScope aggregates and semantically analyzes hotel reviews from top travel / reviews sites. FunnelScope’ approach is to measure the sentiment of each review for key attributes: service quality, bed comfort quality, pet-friendly, kid-friendly, business, romantic, room quality, room size, gym quality, views, beach access, entertainment access, food quality, and much more. Here is an example of how search engines can aggregate unique data for SEO purposes.

This data is available in several formats:

1) Aggregated reviews for each hotel from top sites where the content is available either in search engine format (with snippet and link to site with review) or full text format.

2) Same as #1 but where each review has semantically scored attributes.

Check out this page to get a sense of how the data in option #2 could be uniquely structured and organized by attribute.

The unique approach FunnelScope takes is outlined in the following diagram. The NLP or Natural Language Processing module is where FunnelScope applies semantic and sentiment analytics.

FunnelScope Data Packaging Process

FunnelScope Data Packaging Process

Currently, the data is only available as an XML file, but FunnelScope is working on API so this data can be available as a web service.

Contact FunnelScope if interested in licensing this data. FunnelScope is also willing to work with clients and apply its approach to other verticals (for example, restaurant reviews, product reviews, etc).

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FunnelScope announces the first hotel awards based on user reviews! These awards leverage an innovative approach of aggregating millions of reviews from travel and review sites and scoring each review for key criteria and categories. The winning hotels by each category are listed below.  Congratulations to the 2010 Reviewers’ Choice Hotel Award winners!

The Reviewers’ Choice Hotel Awards for U.S. hotels provide a unique and broad perspective by taking into account user experiences via millions of unbiased hotel reviews and distilling their implied ratings across numerous categories. These categories include: bed comfort, bathroom quality, beach hotels, service quality, business, access to entertainment, family-friendly, gym quality, pet-friendly, pool quality, romantic, overall value, and quality of views.

These days most of us rely on user reviews to help us make travel decisions. FunnelScope’s hotel search engine takes this a step further by quantifying user reviews into ratings that can be quickly and easily understood. FunnelScope’s unique semantic technology was used in scoring the reviews.

Millions of hotel reviews are posted online each year at multiple websites. It’s too much information to digest. In fact, it’s nearly impossible, not to mention a time waste, to find and read all the hotel reviews available. But online hotel reviews are a trusted and valuable source of information. They help people make their hotel booking decisions and often are a key factor that determines the quality of their trip.

Funnelscope solves the problem of being able to digest all that information!

Travelers have been waiting for someone smart to compile all that hotel review information on the web into an easily digestible format.  Travelers only want to see reviews that help them find a hotel that meets their needs.  FunnelScope is doing just that – simplifying hotel research to find the perfect hotel.

The awards are listed below by category. Congratulations to the hotels listed.  They’ve won FunnelScope’s first annual Reviewers Choice awards!

Consumers searching for the right hotel are also winners. Why? Because now they can use FunnelScope’s innovative hotel research engine to generate a personalized hotel list specific to their criteria and location (city or neighborhood).

Awesome Beach Hotels:
PARK SHORE WAIKIKI – AN AQUA HOTEL – HONOLULU, HAWAII

RAMADA PLAZA BEACH RESORT – FORT WALTON BEACH, FLORIDA

SHERATON PRINCESS KAIULANI – HONOLULU, HAWAII

OUTRIGGER WAIKIKI ON THE BEACH – HONOLULU, HAWAII

PACIFIC EDGE HOTEL ON LAGUNA BEACH – LAGUNA BEACH, CALIFORNIA

MOANA SURFRIDER WAIKIKI BEACH – HONOLULU, HAWAII

FONTAINEBLUEAU – MIAMI BEACH, FLORIDA

SHUTTERS ON THE BEACH – SANTA MONICA, CALIFORNIA

ROYAL KONA RESORT – KONA, HAWAII

ASTON WAIKIKI BEACH HOTEL – HONOLULU, HAWAII

Business Traveler’s Top Picks:
THE ORCHARD HOTEL – SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA

BEST WESTERN WESTMINSTER INN – WESTMINISTER, CALIFORNIA

THE TREMONT HOTEL – CHICAGO, ILLINOIS

THE RITZ-CARLTON BUCKHEAD – ATLANTA, GEORGIA

BEACON HOTEL & CORPORATE QUARTERS – WASHINGTON, DC

SAN FRANCISCO MARRIOTT – SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA

VILLA FLORENCE, A LARKSPUR COLLECTION HOTEL – SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA

CLUB QUARTERS – PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA

MILLENIUM HILTON – NEW YORK, NEW YORK

W- SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA

Close to Entertainment:
HOLIDAY INN CHARLESTON (HISTORIC DISTRICT) – CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA

THE BELLEVIEW BILTMORE RESORT – CLEARWATER, FLORIDA

HOTEL JEFFERY – COULTERVILLE, CALIFORNIA

IMPERIAL PALACE CASINO RESORT SPA – LAS VEGAS, NEVADA

MARRIOTT’S CUSTOM HOUSE – BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS

SIR FRANCIS DRAKE – A KIMPTON HOTEL – SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA

GEORGIAN TERRACE HOTEL – ATLANTA, GEORGIA

RAMADA PLAZA BEACH RESORT – FORT WALTON BEACH, FLORIDA

21C MUSEUM HOTEL – LOUISVILLE, KENTUCKY

HOLIDAY INN EL TROPICANO RIVERWALK – SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS

Most Family Friendly:
HILTON GRAND VACATIONS CLUB AT SEAWORLD – ORLANDO, FLORIDA

RAMADA PLAZA BEACH RESORT – FORT WALTON BEACH, FLORIDA

ANABELLA HOTEL – ANAHEIM, CALIFORNIA

DOUBLETREE GUEST SUITES TIMES SQUARE – NEW YORK, NEW YORK

SHERATON VISTANA VILLAGES – ORLANDO, FLORIDA

SIRATA BEACH RESORT – ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA

DUNES VILLAGE RESORT – MYRTLE BEACH, SOUTH CAROLINA

ARIZONA GRAND RESORT – PHOENIX, ARIZONA

LAKE BUENA VISTA RESORT VILLAGE & SPA – LAKE BUENA VISTA, FLORIDA

PINK SHELL BEACH RESORT & SPA – FORT MYERS, FLORIDA

Pet Friendly Award:
BEST WESTERN INN – BLAKESLEE-POCONO, PENNSYLVANIA

DRURY INN & SUITES GREENSBORO – NORTH CAROLINA

THE ELLIS HOTEL – ATLANTA, GEORGIA

BEAZLEY HOUSE – NAPA, CALIFORNIA

DOUBLETREE GUEST SUITES – LEXINGTON, KENTUCKY

HOLIDAY INN – PIGEON FORGE, TENNESSEE

BEST WESTERN GREAT SMOKIES INN – CHEROKEE, NORTH CAROLINA

MARINER MOTEL – FALMOUTH, MASSACHUSETTS

7 SPRINGS INN & SUITES – PALM SPRINGS, CALIFORNIA

SHERATON MUSIC CITY HOTEL – NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE

Best Pools:
RESIDENCE INN ORLANDO SEAWORLD – ORLANDO, FLORIDA

HOLIDAY INN SUNSPREE RESORT – PANAMA CITY BEACH, FLORIDA

UNIVERSAL’S HARD ROCK HOTEL – ORLANDO, FLORIDA

SHERATON SAFARI HOTEL & SUITES LAKE BUENA VISTA – ORLANDO, FLORIDA

BEST WESTERN KEY AMBASSADOR RESORT INN – KEY WEST, FLORIDA

THE WESTIN KA’ANAPALI OCEAN RESORT VILLAS – HONOKOWAI, HAWAII

MGM GRAND HOTEL AND CASINO – LAS VEGAS, NEVADA

MONTAGE – LAGUNA BEACH, CALIFORNIA

CARIBE ROYALE – ORLANDO, FLORIDA

MANDALAY BAY RESORT AND CASINO – LAS VEGAS, NEVADA

Most Romantic:
MADRONA MANOR – HEALDSBURG, CALIFORNIA

SANIBEL SUNSET BEACH RESORT – SANIBEL, FLORIDA

SAINT REGIS ASPEN RESORT – ASPEN, COLORADO

HOTEL MAYA – LONG BEACH, CALIFORNIA

DIAMOND HEAD BEACH RESORT – FORT MYERS BEACH, FLORIDA

OUTRIGGER REEF ON THE BEACH – HONOLULU, HAWAII

THE HOTEL OF SOUTH BEACH – MIAMI BEACH, FLORIDA

OMNI LA MANSION DEL RIO – SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS

HOLIDAY INN SANIBEL ISLAND – SANIBEL, FLORIDA

LITTLE PALM ISLAND RESORT & SPA – LITTLE TORCH KEY, FLORIDA

Best Overall Value:
PALACE STATION HOTEL & CASINO – LAS VEGAS, NEVADA

EL CORTEZ HOTEL & CASINO – LAS VEGAS, NEVADA

BEST WESTERN WESTMINSTER INN – WESTMINISTER, CALIFORNIA

MARRIOTT CITY CENTER – SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH

DISNEY’S ALL-STAR MUSIC RESORT – ORLANDO, FLORIDA

CLUB QUARTERS – PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA

MURRAY HILL EAST HOTEL – NEW YORK, NEW YORK

ANABELLA HOTEL – ANAHEIM, CALIFORNIA

WINTERHAVEN HOTEL – WINTER HAVEN, FLORIDA

BEST WESTERN PALM GARDEN INN – WESTMINISTER, CALIFORNIA

Great Views Award:
THE WESTIN MAUI RESORT & SPA – HONOKOWAI, HAWAII

HYATT REGENCY ON THE HUDSON – JERSEY CITY, NEW JERSEY

LOEWS VENTANA CANYON RESORT – TUCSON, ARIZONA

GRAND AMERICAN HOTEL – SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH

ROYAL KONA RESORT – KAILUA, HAWAII

MOANA SURFRIDER WAIKIKI BEACH – HONOLULU, HAWAII

MANDARIN ORIENTAL – NEW YORK, NEW YORK

PACIFIC TERRACE HOTEL – SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA

MANDARIN ORIENTAL – MIAMI, FLORIDA

PARK SHORE WAIKIKI – HONOLULU, HAWAII

Most Comfortable Beds:

SOFITEL – PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA

THE ORCHARD HOTEL – SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA

HOTEL DELUXE – PORTLAND, OREGON

BEACON HOTEL & CORPORATE QUARTERS – WASHINGTON, DC

MGM GRAND HOTEL AND CASINO – LAS VEGAS, NEVADA

AQUA PALMS & SPA – WAIKIKI, HAWAII

RENAISSANCE HOTEL – NEW YORK, NEW YORK

MILLENNIUM BILTMORE HOTEL – LA, CALIFORNIA

THE WESTIN SEATTLE – SEATTLE, WASHINGTON

THE WESTIN RIVERWALK – SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS

Best Bathroom Quality:
MGM GRAND HOTEL AND CASINO – LAS VEGAS, NEVADA

70 PARK AVENUE KIMPTON HOTEL – NEW YORK, NEW YORK

ST. GREGORY LUXURY HOTEL AND SUITES – ROSSLYN, VIRGINIA

THE POD HOTEL – NEW YORK, NEW YORK

HOTEL METRO – NEW YORK, NEW YORK

HOTEL KABUKI – SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA

BEACON HOTEL & CORPORATE QUARTERS – WASHINGTON, DC

W CHICAGO LAKESHORE – CHICAGO, ILLINOIS

MILLENNIUM BILTMORE HOTEL – LA, CALIFORNIA

JW MARRIOTT HOTEL – SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA

High Gym Quality Award:
NEW YORK MARRIOTT MARQUIS – NEW YORK, NEW YORK

INTERNATIONAL HOUSE – NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA

LOEWS PHILADELPHIA HOTEL – PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA

MGM GRAND HOTEL AND CASINO – LAS VEGAS, NEVADA

HILTON – SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA

THE FAIRMONT SONOMA MISSION INN & SPA – BOYES HOT SPRINGS, CALIFORNIA

GUESTHOUSE WILDWOOD – FLORENCE, KENTUCKY

MANDARIN ORIENTAL – NEW YORK,  NEWYORK

GRAND HOTEL – MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA

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Note: This is part nine in a series of fun travel stories to highlight our alpha launch of FunnelScope. Need to find the right hotel for you? Try Funnelscope!

Most people aren’t fans of internet pop-up ads.  In fact, they loathe them and quickly click on the browser button to delete them.

Well, what happens when you encounter multiple human versions of an internet pop-up ad?

My family and I visited a beach in Cabo San Lucas Mexico near multiple large hotels.  As we were there the first of January, it was the slow season for tourists.  But, apparantly the slow tourist season doesn’t equate to beach vendors taking time off.

As soon as we hit the beach, a slew of vendors approached us.  My dad had broken his sunglasses and needed a new pair.  He also wanted a cheap t-shirt as a souvenir.  We negotiated with the vendors and made our transactions.

In the next hour we counted how many vendors approached us as we laid on the beach.  We counted 45, no joke.

The vendors are human beings trying to make a living so we were obviously nice to them.  A “no thanks” usually didn’t get them to leave right away.  Gradually we got a bit firmer.  We lasted an hour, and then left to find a less “touristy” beach.

Watch the short video.  Yes, there is such a thing as the human version of the internet pop-up ad.

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Note: This is part eight in a series of fun travel stories to highlight our alpha launch of FunnelScope. Need to find the right hotel for you? Try Funnelscope!

Kids are awesome. Traveling with kids can be a challenge – sometimes even a challenge to your ego.

The three short videos below were taken in Cabo San Lucas Mexico. A beautiful shot of the famous Cabo arch can be seen in one of the videos.

We ran across a pack of sea lions laying on a bed of rocks (video 1). The boat we were on was able to get close to the rocks and allow us to view the sea lions up close.

One of the sea lions barked after the boat captain barked at it. My young nephew asked his dad what sound sea lions make. My brother, being the excellent dad he is, responded with a full gusto sea lion bark and flipper flap. Little did he know I was filming him (video 2)!

A lone sea lion sat by itself on a tall rock. The boat was able to pull right up to the rock. The sea lion acted like he was ignoring us, but kept on opening one eye, checking us out, and then winking at us (video 3).

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Note:  This is part seven in a series of fun travel stories to highlight our alpha launch of FunnelScope.  Need to find the right hotel for you?  Try Funnelscope!

So how do you scuba dive with kids?  Try a glass bottom boat.

On first thought, a glass bottom boat invokes images of an entire hull made of glass.  Nope, that’s not the case.  In fact, the area of glass is pretty small – maybe 6 feet by a foot.  This is probably a good thing as who really wants to ride in a boat that could easily crack anyway?

Boats naturally scare away fish.  But if the captain goes slow, and stops the boat near a reef or other area with lots of fish you’ll see your fair share.  You really can’t see much in deeper water, but in shallow clear water you can see all the way to the bottom.

Check out this short video.  The big wild angel fish is beautiful.  People with salt water tanks at home would love to have it.  The number of fish seen is also surprisingly high.

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This is the sixth post of FunnelScope Funnies series focusing on fun and interesting travel stories to highlight our alpha launch of FunnelScope.

Continuing with stories in the Amazon from my previous post, one of the days our group went out in canoes to fish for piranha. Fishing required a rope, hook, and pieces of red meat. We would stick the rope in the water and when we felt a nibble would pull up as hard as possible (without falling out of the canoe since then the situation can quickly reverse…that’s one definite downside of fishing for piranha!). The following photo highlights the fruits of my labor.

Fishing for Piranha

Fishing for Piranha

As you can see, I didn’t do too bad. I have to say, it was a very cool experience. But that’s not the best of it.

We brought the piranha back to our camp and the locals cooked the piranha we caught for us. At first I thought they were kidding. Who eats piranha? But sure enough, they brought out cooked piranha.

Hesitant, I had a bite of my catch…it was the tastiest fish I had ever eaten. It was tender and delicious. What an expected surprise! The only disappointment was that I had not caught more since it was so good.

Travel Lesson #5: When in the Amazon try the piranha…just make sure they don’t try you.

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FunnelScope’s application is essentially three search engines in one: vertical search (travel), semantic search, and social search.

The Concentric Circles of FunnelScope

The Concentric Circles of FunnelScope

Why take this approach? FunnelScope’s thesis is this is the sweet spot for search.

Vertical search provides focus and comprehensiveness. We have all used vertical search engines. Sites like Expedia, Orbitz, Kayak, and TripAdvisor are all vertical search engines for travel. Most of us use them because they usually are more comprehensive than a generic search engine in terms of content and features.

The strength of vertical search engines is also their weakness. Comprehensiveness means lots of choices and lots of reviews to read. How do you narrow down the right option for you? This is where semantic search comes in. Vertical + semantic search allows you to quickly narrow down your choices based on criteria you care about. Semantic search provides a way for discovery and time savings. In FunnelScope’s case, we semantically score reviews for each key attribute and then categorize reviews by those attributes. This allows you to search by attributes such as views, bathroom quality, business, or kid-friendly and only read the reviews relevant to your search.

The issue with vertical + semantic alone is the reliance on input from a bunch of strangers where you can’t be sure the reviews are from people like you. This is where social search comes in. You may ask why not just rely on social search alone and skip the other two? There are indeed companies like Aardvark that attempt to do this. The problem is that starting off with social search and only relying on this approach limits your options from the outset. You only get the view of your friends and may miss out on an excellent option that is right for you.  Plus, these approaches are too generic (where you get no data, just some options you still need to research).

This is why FunnelScope likes to leverage social search as a means to help you narrow down and personalize a comprehensive selection, as opposed to limiting your options from the outset. As you can see from a previous post that highlights my social search results, overlaying social input to personalize search rankings is quite helpful. But FunnelScope believes that social search needs to go even a step further in providing functionality that helps you better manage your social search across social networks, and this is coming in our beta release.

What do you think of FunnelScope’s vertical + semantic + social approach? Does it provide you with comprehensive yet personalized results and save you time versus other search engines. As David Letterman used to ask in one of his skits, “Is this something?” We welcome your thoughts and feedback.

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I want to thank everyone who provided their input for my recent social search. I thought that I would share my results.

Last week I did a search request on Twitter where I tweeted: “Looking for a hotel in san francisco for business and with decent rooms @funnelscope”. FunnelScope sent me results ranked by my criteria and then sent out a request to my Twitter friends asking for their input.

The following shows my personalized results. Funnelscope ranked the hotels by my selected criteria: business and room quality (highlighted in green). In addition, it further personalized the rankings to account for my friends’ input (highlighted in blue).

What’s cool for the folks that voted is that FunnelScope will use that data to further personalize their search; and in future versions FunnelScope will make those ratings available to their other social networking friends when they search for a hotel in San Francisco.

The result is a travel site that gives you search results with personalized rankings based on selected criteria and input from people similar to you.

My Social Search Rankings

My Social Search Rankings

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This is the fifth post of FunnelScope Funnies series focusing on fun and interesting travel stories to highlight our alpha launch of FunnelScope.

The amazon is an amazing place. What blew my mind was to learn that there are actually fresh water dolphins that live in the amazon’s rivers. I always thought of them as beautiful creatures of the oceans…not creatures in rivers.

How this happened is that when the continents collided, the ocean became trapped between them, including the ocean’s creatures. Dolphins evolved over time to live in a habitat of fresh water and comparatively shallow rivers. And similar to ocean dolphins, they are gentle creatures that protect people…in the amazon it’s against piranhas and caiman (in the crocodile family).

Check out this video to see an approximately 9 foot Caiman Crocodile (although you can’t see its whole body):

The fact is if you swim in the amazon when there are no dolphins around, then there is a good chance you will be eaten alive by piranha or caimen. In the first video below, you can see a dolphin blow water at the surface (btw, freshwater dolphins are pink) and in the second one you can see yours truly swimming with the dolphins. I have always loved dolphins and you can tell by my child-like excitement. The dolphin kept touching me and swimming around me…it was quite amazing.

So what makes this story funny is my reaction to touching the dolphin– and you can hear my friends chuckling when I yell it. I think they weren’t quite sure what I meant when I kept yelling “You should feel this thing!”


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One of the unique and compelling aspects of FunnelScope is the ability to get personalized hotel rankings based on input from your social network. Our features are still nascent but I thought I would show some examples of how FunnelScope’s personalization engine works.

We welcome any feedback on how we can improve this process. Please leave  comments below or send an email to feedback at funnelscope dot com. We have plans to improve these features in our beta version, but your feedback would be very helpful.

The following is a screenshot from FunnelScope of search results for a hotel search in Boston where a user is not logged in:

FunnelScope Hotel Search Results (For User Not Logged In)

FunnelScope General Hotel Search Results

Now let’s look at the search results for a user that is logged in.

FunnelScope Hotel Search Personalized Results

FunnelScope Personalized Hotel Search Results

Notice a couple things from this screenshot:

1) Notice how the hotel rankings have changed- now personalized for this user’s friends’ input. Whereas in the first scenario, Harborside Inn was ranked first, now Hotel Commonwealth is ranked first due to input from friends. The Total FunnelScope Rating has changed for each hotel to account for this user’s social graph ratings;

2) Notice the ratings of each hotel under “Your Social Network”. This is how this users’ friends rate this hotel.

Personalization also occurs when user selects an attribute (such as bathroom quality)– FunnelScope accounts for friends’ input in the users personalized hotel rankings.

For this to work well, users need to request input from friends (i.e., Socialize It). The more input users get from friends, the more valuable the social search results will be for users.

One of the interesting things FunnelScope is working on is to allow users to expand beyond their immediate network to see how hotels rank. This functionality along with supporting Facebook in our next release should further enhance your ability to get personalized hotel results on FunnelScope.

What are we missing? Please share your thoughts on how we can make this better for you.

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