Many travel searchers on the internet have to employ longer and more detailed searches in order to find exactly what they want via search engines, according to research. The findings show that the number of travel searchers having to type-in four or more keywords has more than doubled between July, 2005 and earlier this year. Significantly, almost three quarters of searchers claimed that they could easily spot paid-for links and most said that they would not click on them. The increasing number of these paid-for links in the search results therefore makes it even more difficult to find particular sites listed on merit alone, according to internet technology company Geo-net Solutions which carried out the research. The rapid growth in the number of travel-related websites combined with poorly designed travel sites and a massive increase in paid-for listings in search engines, has made it more difficult for consumers to find what they are looking for quickly and easily, the Darlington-based company says. Geo-net's research concluded that, while search engines have got much better at finding pages closely relevant to users' queries, the travel industry has been slow to clearly differentiate its products to match the way in which users are actually searching for them. This is frustrating for travel consumers and costly for the industry.  The company's managing director Peter Bulloch said: "The time and effort a consumer has to spend on finding exactly what they want has become known as the 'cost of search'. The goal of search engines - and online marketers alike - should be to reduce this 'cost' and make it easier and quicker for consumers to find what they're looking for. "Creating web pages which can't be fully understood by search engines is the equivalent of locking the door on a high street store and asking customers to guess a password to get in." Geo-net has been developing software tools aimed at supporting online marketing strategies, which are now available to travel companies wanting to provide their customers with the best possible online service. TravelSearcher, the first to be released, offers free-form text search on most types of travel website. It also captures data about users' search habits by recording all the words they use in these queries in a database. The software claims to captures the natural language people use in keyword strings by offering a, Google-like, free-form search box as opposed to the usual pre-formatted drop-down menu queries. Users can type in any words and the software will interpret those into a meaningful search query, just like Google does. Also, like Google, it understands and interprets misspellings in resort names, acronyms like SC or B&B and that "Thompsons" really means "Thomson". The small TravelSearcher window can be placed on websites allowing marketers to monitor changes in the nature of search strings being typed-in. Each successful, as well as unsuccessful, search can be recorded and analysed. This data can be used to dynamically enhance web pages for search engine optimisation, as well as for paid-placement marketing campaigns. Bulloch said: "In the information-rich but time-poor world we now find ourselves, companies must adapt quickly to the changing search environment and the increasing demands of customers. I believe TravelSearcher is a quantum leap forward in on-site travel search technology and will hugely enhance the online travel industry for both the consumer and travel companies." Report by Phil Davies

Categories:  Breaking News, Travel Agent News, Tour Operator, Airline News, Travel Technology News

USER COMMENTS

Jon Hewson ManagingPartner-Special Projects, VirtuallyThere.ca 01 September 2006, 16:30:56 GMT Web site owners can help themselves David Lowry amply illustrated a common error - copying his URL into a browser won't work! There is a typo. Web site owners can do a simple check. Open up their index (opening) page and then right-click to VIEW SOURCE. At the top of the source text they **should** find some lines that begin These are used by the search engines when indexing your web pages. So many pages lack these eseential lines so it is little wonder that search engines will not produce the right results. Furthermore, subtle setting changes on your web **host computer** will allow people to omit either the "http://" and the "www" parts of a URL. If these settings are not made your web page will appear to be non-existent. Another thing - get rid of the Flash off the index page - it doesn't help search engines either. Besides, today's impatient web user wants to see a page painted in a few seconds, not an empty box loading up with Flash. As with everything, moderation is best.   David Lowry 01 September 2006, 03:28:18 GMT This travel website directory might help My website compltetetraveldirectory.com might help with searches. It is a directory of travel related websites listed alphabetically by category. It is under construction and now has 42,000 links. David Lowry   David Burdon Director, Simply Clicks 01 September 2006, 15:48:20 GMT New research Would it be possible to see this new research.   John Thropp General Manager, Stavanger Travel AS 01 September 2006, 14:31:32 GMT on-site search - easy to add, but hard to get right It is fairly easy to add in-site search, and it is certainly useful to store search queries - along with how many suggestions were returned - BUT as the demo site shows, getting relevant results to the user is not so easy. Not only do you need to be able to index the site's content effectively, but also tune the search algorithms. On www.stavangertravel.com we use Verity search as part of a travel portal application suite, which works fairly well.   Peter Bulloch 01 September 2006, 13:49:05 GMT Travel-Searcher learning from its mistakes This Travel-Searcher demo admittedly has some limitations. That is partly because we are a technology company not a tour operator/travel agent with access to lots of data feeds. Also the Travel-Searcher technology is ‘learning’ from the searches being made and will constantly improve as new words and phases are added to its database. “Christmas in Goa” works fine now. However, when a travel company deploys Travel-Searcher for the consumer, it will be programmed with their own keyword database, relevant to the proposition and stock. Finally, if this were meant as a consumer site we’d have put much more effort into the usability issues but it’s not – it’s an industry demo to invite interest.   Stuart Maxwell 01 September 2006, 12:51:16 GMT Works for me My search for - St. Pauls Malta December SC with Airtours - produced exactly what I searched for. Plus, follow any of the links to 'more details' and a message is displayed "This version of Travel Searcher is for the purpose of a travel industry demonstration only..."   Antony Bradley Managing Director, directline holidays 01 September 2006, 12:23:09 GMT Clear as mud It is in no way made clear that the site is for demo purposes. Even if it were, demos work best when they actually work. Searching 'christmas and new year in goa' returns 4/9/06 to Turkey. Package holidays operate to Barbados, which is not in Malta.   Stuart Maxwell 01 September 2006, 12:02:59 GMT Travel-Searcher only in demonstration mode It is made clear that the site at www.travel-searcher.co.uk is only for demonstration purposes. Current responses are therefore only as good as the xml feed behind it and this is currently limited to package holidays. If it were also connected to flights and villa availability, presumably it could easily have dealt with Mr Bradley's earlier query. Surely it is up to the agents/operators who take Travel-Searcher to apply the tool to query their own product/s?   David Ash 01 September 2006, 11:23:09 GMT Publishers vs marketeers Google have by and large dealt with marketing agents passing sites off as publiciations, created just to sell something via an affiliate scheme. The public are ill served by such sites as the information is often dated or stolen. I had no end of problems with these people nicking my content and text. As a publisher who does a lot of research, its gratifying they are now generally being forced to pay for their publicity. Try typing in "hypermarkets in calais" for example and you will get my drift (Boozers and Cheers went bust last year). Much of the information on some sites is very dated (because they don't research it themselves).   Gary Phillips ar, a 31 August 2006, 17:05:56 GMT Vertical Search - The future The internet is constantly evolving and always will - Vertical search (in other words industry specific search sites) are ready to step in to meet this need for quality results. A number of sites are due to be launched in the UK in coming months including kayak.com, sidestep.com, bezurk.com and various other silly named websites. This is why travelsupermarket.com have spent so much on TV advertising during the course of this year: they want to get a greater share of the market before the Americans arrive. We have our very own vertical search site www.eurodestination.com