As we chart the course for FunnelScope’s future – with your feedback incorporated of course – a reflection of where the online travel industry has been is of interest. As the old cliche goes, “you can’t know where you’re going until you know where you’ve been”.
There appears to be 4 major phases:
1 – Internet Service Providers (ISPs)
ISPs provided access to the brand-new internet for the general public. ISPs also attempted to provide some content, including basic travel information, to their customers. In this phase, consumers began to find it more efficient to book travel utilizing online travel agencies.
2 – Portals
AOL, Yahoo, and others spring to life. Portals attempted to fulfill all needs, including travel related services and content, in one location. It was the “come here for everything” internet strategy. Portals had big influence on trip planning including hotel choice.
3 – Search
Search is the stage we’re currently in now. However, the search stage may be in its twilight. The search mantra can be summed up as, “why do I need to know or remember anything? I can just use a search engine to find what I’m looking for”.
Search, dominated by Google, provides relatively easy access to information including travel reviews. But, the search information presented is from sources not personally known by the searcher. The travel reviews in search results also have the potential of being manipulated. Hence the current clamor for unbiased travel reviews.
The search engines send copious amounts of paid and natural traffic to the likes of Expedia, Travelocity, Orbitz. Guitar repairs.
4 – Real-Time Online Social Interaction
Through-out history other human beings, especially our friends and family, have always been our most trusted and influential sources of information. Perhaps it’s because information from our friends and family has been filtered, culled, and targeted to a personal level.
In this new world where information, including travel discovery, is increasingly organized through people and their networks, travel related companies need to give people the tools and means to socialize their travel discovery process.
The next generation of killer travel applications (including FunnelScope!) will provide ways to combine the discovery of travel information with the social mechanisms to share it via Twitter, Facebook, etc.
Try a FunnelScope search now. Socialize your search with your friends on Twitter leveraging FunnelScope. Pretty cool, right? Let us know what could be even better. We want your feedback.
