Earlier today, Sheraton officially launched a new online experience, “Sheraton Guest Portal Powered by Bing” which intends to “help guests seamlessly navigate their stay” via a number of tools that will help tailor a guest’s stay to the specific location of the Sheraton hotel.
According to the press release:
The new portal was specially designed to provide guests with an intuitive, tailored on-line experience specific to their destination – like having a personal concierge in the palm of your hand. As part of the new online experience, guests will find constantly updated relevant content, specific to each Sheraton location, such as local maps and the top search results for area restaurants, attractions, special events and services.
It will be interesting to see the response to this new feature from Sheraton on their social media sharing and feedback platform, “Sheraton Shared Moments,” which allows hotel guests to share their hotel stay and travel experiences via various social media channels including Twitter and Facebook.
Will these changes help Sheraton’s satisfaction score go up? Should they be focusing more on face to face interaction and responding to review sites, rather than turning their concierge service over to technology? What do you think?
For more information on Microsoft’s involvement in the project, check out the Windows Team Blog.
Must I even state my bias anymore? Okay, fine, blah, I’m obsessed with the NYT. And yet they make it so easy! Here’s the newest reason why: Mediaweekreports that The New York Times Company is building search products to search through Twitter, ultimately hoping to generate insightful commentary for news items. The company already employs a similar tool on its superluxe blog The Moment, which aggregates relevant Twitter fodder from its editors and readers.
I think Twitter’s internal search is pretty lame, so I’m excited about this development. It’ll certainly help those of us who rely on and monitor online media, plus it deepens the ever-widening boundaries of journalism—citizen and otherwise.
So, there is a brilliant website that showcases the work of an artist who has created a needle gauge that measures the number of Google searches for “Paris Hilton” vs. “Paris, France” in real time. As of posting, “Paris, France” has a slight advantage.
But this begs the question: Who would win a cage match of Paris v. Paris? Let’s break it down:
Personality Attributes: Both Hilton and France are sexually liberal and can’t be bothered with such things as “wearing underwear.” Advantage: DRAW
Catch Phrase: The French Government Tourist Office says “Get Lost in Francelation” while Hilton says “That’s Hot” — a phrase that makes me want to cry tears of Hilton’s signature fragrance “Just Me.” Advantage: FRANCE
BFF: Hilton has lots of friends, including one that she just purchased on a reality show, Nicole Ritchie, and special friend/co-star Rick Salomon. France gets to hang out with Carla Bruni while she talks about Mick Jagger and puts on fancy gowns for a Vanity Fair cover shoot. Advantage: FRANCE
Legal Issues: Hilton spent some time in the Los Angeles County Jail in 2007 and wasn’t able to properly care for her hair extensions. France executed its queen by beheading her. Advantage: Um, HILTON
Signature Beverage: Who knew, Hilton sells her own Prosecco wine in — get this — cans. (Watch the video…I defy you to not crack open a can of wine after watching.) Why continue, Advantage: FRANCE.
Film Appearances: The Razzie-award winning film The Hottie and The Nottie starred Hilton, while France appeared in something called Moulin Rouge. Advantage: HILTON, Moulin Rouge doesn’t even rhyme.
Closing Argument:
Hilton: “It will work, I am a marketing genius.” — Paris Hilton
France: “Kabbalah helps you confront your fears. If a girl borrowed my clothes and never gave them back, and I saw her wearing them months later, I would confront her.” — Paris Hilton
Winner: Paris, France.
Oh, and check out that website I referenced. Cool idea. Social media. Online. FWD, etc.
A new study shows that search giant Google accounted for 72.11% of all U.S. online searches conducted in February, an 8% increase over the same period last year, according to online information company Hitwise.
Google’s February performance extended its search dominance over Yahoo (with 17.04% of all U.S. searches, down 17% from a year earlier), MSN Search (5.56%, down by 20%), and Ask.com (3.74%, down 10%).
In the age of social networking, it’s impossible to really be “friends” with all of your Facebook and MySpace pals, let alone keep up with their interests and life happenings. That’s why I totally agree with this article from TechCrunch, pushing for a more efficient social search where your friends with keywords that match your Google search will show up.
You may have heard about the introduction of Google’s new SearchWiki last week, but do you know how to use it? Above is a quick and helpful video about how you can use the SearchWiki to bump up the results you find most relevant so that they’re there the next time you search for a specific keyword. This sounds much more complicated than in it is, I promise. Just watch the video.
Google does good. It appears Google can even make navigating electoral bureaucracies a cinch, according a story today on MediaBistro’s FishbowlNY. The search engine has released a new map application, the 2008 Voter Info Google Map Layer, that allows users to input their address to determine where their polling station is and how to get there. Hats off to you, Google!
Remember how when you needed to research something back in the olden days, you had to actually go to the library, look in the card catalog, find the book on the shelves and scan through the index to find what you were looking for? Well, if Google keeps expanding its Book Search program, all you’ll have to do is log on to books.google.com and type a few keywords into the search field. They’ve already scanned over a million books and are hoping to grow even more. Kids these days have it so easy!
Over at Search Engine Guide, an educational web site aimed at translating the search marketing world into something that small business owners can understand, editor Jennifer Laycock explains why social media will play such an important role in helping small business owners (SBOs) survive the recent financial market turmoil:
Companies will have less money to spend, so they’ll start searching for cheaper ways to get in front of consumers. Thanks to the web, they can listen to opinions, thoughts and questions from consumers. Thanks to social media, they can engage those consumers, meet their needs and win the sale.
Ask.com has introduced a revamped version of its search engine. It has overhauled its Web search engine to deliver faster results and improved relevance as it bids to win share from market leader Google Inc., as Ask.com remains a distant fourth in a market that is overwhelmingly dominated by Google.
Ask.com will now deliver results not only from the Web, but also from “structured” sources of data in certain categories like entertainment, health and jobs.
Display and banner ad sales have been on the decline, but Microsoft and other large companies are making the claims that they are more effective than search advertising.
vs. 
