Comments on: Property and Web 2.0 http://xebidy.com/2007/04/property-and-web-20/ Web 2.0 eCommerce Strategy Design and Implementation Tue, 06 Jan 2009 09:33:38 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.5.1 By: xebidy http://xebidy.com/2007/04/property-and-web-20/#comment-3 xebidy Fri, 20 Apr 2007 01:26:19 +0000 http://xebidy.com/?p=7#comment-3 Your site is for flights - and you say you use screen scraping. Do you then have a contract with the flight/travel websites that you refer to for a referral fee or similar? What is the revenue model? I understood that most of the big metasearch sites like Skyscanner and Mobissimo actually integrate directly into many of their airline partners databases for flights via their own proprietary aggregators etc. There is an interesting article by Forrester Research called "What Travel Metasearch 2.0 Must Do to Win" (April 2006) which discusses the cost to the airlines of the metasearch companies hitting their sites and some of the Travel 2.0 ideas that these sites will need to take on board to continue to compete with the online travel retaillers. Some of the interesting things that the article suggests are mash-ups with maps etc., such as on Kayak.com, better comparative interfaces (including AJAX interfaces), more information than just the flight info (such as menus or bad seating options - such as on SeatGuru.com), and of course user generated content (such as wiki discussions on the difference between flying into Heathrow or Gatwick). Given that reviews and ratings of property for sale is unlikely to ever be a hit, surely some of the Travel 2.0 principals could be applied to a property metasearch site; in particular, better comparative interfaces of properties you might be interested in, user generated discussions on neighbourhoods and public transport or schools etc., and even information about realtors and auctioneers? Your site is for flights - and you say you use screen scraping. Do you then have a contract with the flight/travel websites that you refer to for a referral fee or similar? What is the revenue model?

I understood that most of the big metasearch sites like Skyscanner and Mobissimo actually integrate directly into many of their airline partners databases for flights via their own proprietary aggregators etc. There is an interesting article by Forrester Research called “What Travel Metasearch 2.0 Must Do to Win” (April 2006) which discusses the cost to the airlines of the metasearch companies hitting their sites and some of the Travel 2.0 ideas that these sites will need to take on board to continue to compete with the online travel retaillers. Some of the interesting things that the article suggests are mash-ups with maps etc., such as on Kayak.com, better comparative interfaces (including AJAX interfaces), more information than just the flight info (such as menus or bad seating options - such as on SeatGuru.com), and of course user generated content (such as wiki discussions on the difference between flying into Heathrow or Gatwick).

Given that reviews and ratings of property for sale is unlikely to ever be a hit, surely some of the Travel 2.0 principals could be applied to a property metasearch site; in particular, better comparative interfaces of properties you might be interested in, user generated discussions on neighbourhoods and public transport or schools etc., and even information about realtors and auctioneers?

]]> By: dan http://xebidy.com/2007/04/property-and-web-20/#comment-2 dan Thu, 19 Apr 2007 19:29:23 +0000 http://xebidy.com/?p=7#comment-2 I think most site use screen scrapping technology to retrieve the content. It is how we do in Trabber (http://www.trabber.com) but the technology can be applied to any type of content. The mantainance is pretty a nightmare. Regards. I think most site use screen scrapping technology to retrieve the content. It is how we do in Trabber (http://www.trabber.com) but the technology can be applied to any type of content. The mantainance is pretty a nightmare.

Regards.

]]>