PlanetEye

Friday, December 28th, 2007

FlickrFan Comes Out of Hiding

By Mark Evans

Digital photography has created an exciting new world for many people but one of the major challenges is what to do with your photographs after they’ve been taken.

The vast majority of shots - even the most beautiful - likely never see the light of day. Even though the cost of printing digital photos has dropped, it’s something that few people really capitalize on.

One way, however, to pull your digital photos into the spotlight is using them as screensavers. Given how much time many of us spend in front of our computers, this is a great way to highlight your favorite photos of family, friends and travels.

Dave Winer, best known for being one of the leading developers of Really Simple Syndication technology, is hoping to make this exercise easier with the launch of FlickrFan (Mac-only, for now), which pulls high-resolution images from any Flickr account or RSS feed so they can be displayed on a screen - be it your computer or a big-screen television.

For more details, you can check out ReadWriteWeb and Dave Winer’s blog.

Technorati Tags: Flickr, FlickrFan, Dave Winer

• Posted in  Photography
• No Comments »

Thursday, December 27th, 2007

Wrapping Up a Great Year

By Mark Evans

As 2008 comes hurdling around the corner, PlanetEye’s global headquarters - actually, our humble little office in downtown Toronto - are fairly quiet.

It’s a marked contrast to what has been an extremely busy, eventful and rewarding year that has seen PlanetEye takes major leaps forward.

Perhaps the most significant developed was the launch of our private beta on Sept. 30 - a move that our CEO, Butch Langlois, marked on a calendar a few months earlier. It was a huge achievement by our hard-working and talented tech team, led by vice-president of technology, Juan Gonzalez.

But this was just the beginning. Over the past three months, PlanetEye’s travel guide has taken huge leaps and bounds as we’ve launched a growing number of new features. You can check out our progress by registering for the private beta at our Web site.

While 2007 was an exciting and busy year, 2008 will be even more so as PlanetEye’s technology and business makes major strides forward.

Stay tuned for more news!

Technorati Tags: PlanetEye, Travel

• Posted in  PlanetEye
• No Comments »

Saturday, December 22nd, 2007

New in Beta: Top Photos

It has been a fantastic year for the development team at PlanetEye. We’ve worked hard to materialize what was barely a collection of ideas, research and mocks a few months ago. With a new build coming out almost every week for the last couple of months the challenge has been to keep our focus on the things that matter. With our last build of the year we solidify our approach to explore beautiful destinations through amazing photography.

In a previous post I explained how we could show the top photos for any of our cities in the City Guide. Now we’ve implemented the same algorithm on our map regardless of what you’re looking at. Regardless of whether the maps is showing a few blocks, a city, a larger region or an entire continent, we will always show you the best ranked photographs in the visible area of the map. For those of you that love the technical details I should add that the main difference between this algorithm and what we used to do before is that in the past we would pick the top photo from each bubble. The challenge was that not all bubbles had a great collection, so now we are searching deep inside each bubble to get all the best photographs across the entire set.

Finally, for those of you that have a Flickr account and have taken the time to geotag your photos, enjoy our improved uploader with Flickr support. Because of the capabilities for the Flickr API, we can show you thumbnails of your photos before you decide to upload them to our servers. Bring them all.

There are still many features in the works and the new year will surely be amazing. Stay tuned.

Have a merry season.

• Posted in  Development, PlanetEye
• No Comments »

Thursday, December 20th, 2007

Daily Double for Kayak

A huge day for Kayak.com.

The travel search engine is raising $196-million in venture capital, AND acquiring rival Sidestep for $200-million, according to TechCrunch. In addition to running a travel search engine, Sidestep also owns, Travelpost.com, the world’s largest independently-owned hotel review community, and TripUp.com, a social travel network.

TechCrunch said SideStep’s acquisition is a marked contrast from just two years ago when the company’s founding CEO, Brian Barth, was forced out. After an extensive overhaul, the company has seen its sales jump to $35-million from $14-million and become profitable.

Kayak’s decision to acquire SideStep puts the spotlight on the travel search market where a growing number of players are trying to become vertical Googles.

Meanwhile, many travelers are getting more adventuresome, and looking at destinations off the beaten track. This is creating a huge opportunity for new players such as PlanetEye, which is using beautiful geotagged photographs, leading-edge mapping technology and advice from travelers and locals to give people a much better sense of destinations around the world.

For more, check out bub.blicio.us and John Cook, who suggests that other travel sites such as Yapta and Farecast could also become acquisition targets.

Technorati Tags: Kayak.com, M&A, puppy, Travel

• Posted in  Travel News
• No Comments »

Thursday, December 20th, 2007

A Vacation in Pittsburgh?

By Mark Evans

As 2007 comes to an end, there’s no lack of lists being published. The travel industry, in particular, loves lists so it’s no surprise to see Frommer’s come up with a list of top destinations for 2008.

I’m not sure whether the list was created during Frommer’s holiday party but there are some strange selections. For one, Pittsburgh made the list because it’s turning 250- years-old in 2008, and has transformed itself into a “modern cityscape” with a “booming local and international arts scene”. That may be true but when I think of Pittsburgh, I think the of the Pittsburgh Steelers and, well, steel.

Denver also made the list for its “remodeled” arts scene, highlighted by the Denver Art Museum’s Daniel Libenskind-designed wing.

Among the more inspiring selections were Quito, Ecuador; Kosrae, Micronesia (an island of “unspoiled beauty”) and Romania.

It was also good to see some Canadian content with Bras d’Or Lakes, Nova Scotia cited for being “home to marinas and yacht clubs, small towns rich in the cultural history of their French and Scottish settlers, and long stretches of undeveloped shoreline”.

Technorati Tags: Frommers, Pittsburgh

• Posted in  Travel
• 1 Comment »

Wednesday, December 19th, 2007

Want Flight Info? Ask Google.

For anyone planning to fly during the holiday season, one thing you have to worry about is whether your flight is on time or delayed. The same goes for people waiting for family and friends to arrive.

Fortunately, the good people at Google have launched a new flight tracking that provides up-to-date information. All you do is enter the airline and flight information in the search box, and, voila, your flight information appears (which actually comes from Flightstats.com).

As TechCrunch points out, you can get flight information from a variety of sources but Google moving into the market will no doubt make people more aware of its availability. Webware also points out that Google’s move could mean less traffic for Expedia, Orbitz and FBWeb, which is the service Webware prefers.

Google’s decision to align itself with Flightstats illustrates how a start-up’s prospects can be transformed from obscure to high profile in an instance. If anything, it shows that the best way to grow a start-up is keeping your head down and focusing on developing the best service/content possible. Whatever happens in the future - a venture capital investment, acquisition, media attention, etc. - will be a dividend of all the hard work you put into nurturing the business.

Technorati Tags: Google, Airlines, Travel

• Posted in  Travel News
• No Comments »

Monday, December 17th, 2007

GPS for the Mainstream User?

By Mark Evans

There’s a lot of excitement about the Dash Express, a in-car GPS unit that does a lot more than just provide you with driving directions.

Armed with $42-million in venture capital, Dash Navigation is hoping to establish a foothold in the fast-growing GPS market against players such as Garmin and Tom-Tom. Dash is clearly betting that consumers will get on the GPS bandwagon if there’s a variety of services available.

So far, driving directions are the “killer app” but it will probably take more to convince consumers to actually buy a GPS unit. Of course, lower prices will also drive demand. A standard in-car GPS unit can now be bought for less than $200, compared with $500 at the beginning of the year.

Engadget got a first-hand look at the Dash Express beta, and came away impressed. Among the features that could motivate consumer to finally pop for a GPS are”

- The ability to display current local gas prices.

- Movies showing at local theatres, and show times.

- Yahoo Local searches show aggregate user ratings.

- Traffic reports.

Engadget’s summary is pretty positive:
“Compared to your usual, run of the mill GPS, whole connected navigator experience was not dissimilar from the jump between going from a VCR to a TiVo — which is why we think maybe, just maybe, people might actually want to pay for service with this thing. Of course, the downside for dash is most people won’t even realize what an amazing boon these kinds of features really are until they’ve taken one home and discovered it first hand out in the world. (Oh, videos after the break.)”

To get a better handle on the Dash Express, check out this corporate video.

For more views on the Dash Express, check out CrunchGear and GigaOm.

Technorati Tags: Dash Express, GPS

• Posted in  GPS/Geotagging
• 2 Comments »

Saturday, December 15th, 2007

New in Beta: City Guides

While we’re very excited about the way our City Guides are evolving and becoming the hub for all the interesting content we are finding on every destination, they become more interesting when you understand all the technology that goes into them.

The same technology that allows us to quickly figure out which are the top photographs for any given region of the map is being used to render the widget at the top of the page, giving you a quick summary of the wonders that a city has to offer. A similar query is run for the Attractions, Hotels & Restaurants listings, except that any references that the PlanetEyeBot keeps finding around the web will influence the ranking of each place. We call it the “noise” factor: the more a place is reviewed and talked about on the web, the better it will do in our rankings.

Another very important element of any city guide is the information that a Local Expert may be able to share with you. There are already a number of such experts actively writing brief reviews, articles and other news to help you understand what the city is all about. Here are some excerpts of what has been published recently:

Contemporary art galleries stand side by side with 17th century churches; priests scurry off to the Vatican bypassing a young couple kissing in the shadow of the Basilica; and soccer is considered the new religion. There’s a new restaurant popping up every month; there’s a new bar opening every week, and you’ll soon realize there will be something different to do everyday! Whether it be a cappuccino craving at 3 a.m., hunger for a Thai-fusion dinner on a lonely Tuesday night, or a need for some cool jazz in a cozy bar, we’ll give you all that and more. Chiara, Rome.

Let’s talk for a minute about Yo’ Mama’s. Yo’ Mama’s hamburgers are so delicious and so good, my eyes roll to the back of my head in sheer sensory ecstasy when I get a taste of that meat. Yo’ Mama’s buns so sweet and thick, I can’t even get the whole thing in my mouth … but I do try my damnedest. Yo’ Mama’s – pure, unadulterated, all-American pleasure. Su-Jit, New Orleans.

You should also take a look at our brand new Upload and Geotag features as they have been optimized for those photographers that have a great collection of travel photos and need to manage many files at once.

For example, if you happen to know the name of a particular location where you took half a dozen of photos, just enter the name of the landmark, select multiple photos at once and drag them on the indicated yellow star.

• Posted in  Development, GPS/Geotagging
• 1 Comment »

Friday, December 14th, 2007

Arthur Frommer’s Luxury Rant

Arthur Frommer is disappointed with the New York Times’ recent story on “The 53 Places to Go in 2008″.

To be honest, he’s more than disappointed; he’s disgusted.

So, what’s got my good friend, Arthur, so upset? Well, he doesn’t like the fact that the NYT list is dominated by a focus on “luxury”, “high-end” and “upscale”. The way Arthur sees it, the NYT’s approach is misguided.

“As someone with a regard for travel, who looks upon travel as a precious birthright of our generation, I want to protest against what a new team of mindless poseurs have done to the once-esteemed travel pages of our leading newspaper.”

Ouch!

Frommer, of course, has a point. Travel is about discovering and exploring, and putting yourself in new and exciting situations that challenge you. It’s about getting away from your day-to-day life to enjoy new adventures, people, sights, sounds, food, etc.

Sure, travel can also involve luxury but how many of us really can afford to fly first-class, stay at five-star hotels and eat at upscale restaurants?

In the NYT’s defense, I would suggest it is targeting a particular demographic given its readership. Even so, the market for upscale, high-end and luxury travel is fairly small in the scheme of things.

Technorati Tags: Arthur Frommer, New York Times

• Posted in  Travel
• No Comments »

Thursday, December 13th, 2007

Flickr Pro Users Get a Stats Fix

For many people online, statistics are an obsession. Many bloggers, for example, will check several times a day how many people are reading their posts, while Web site operators rely on statistics to attract advertising.

Flickr has finally jumped on the stats bandwagon by introducing a new feature that shows Flickr Pro users how many times their photographs have been viewed and where traffic is coming from.

This will, no doubt, thrill Flickr Pro users such as Search Engine Land’s Danny Sullivan, who wrote “Who doesn’t love stats? Now having them on my Flickr account makes me incredibly happy.”

As Read Write/Web suggests, offering this service to Flickr Pro users is a solid move that will likely be copied by Flickr’s competitors.

Flickr also released a new version of its uploading tool, Uploadr 3.0, which lets photographers select photos for upload, add tags, organize them into sets, and change privacy settings.

Technorati Tags: Flickr, Photography

• Posted in  Online Travel Services
• No Comments »