So I’ve been checking out some of the spring/summer lines that many companies are now putting out for 2009. There are some pretty cool looking hats – in particular, Kangol’s Neo Havan Trilby with its clean lines and crisp fabric.

Kangol Neo Check Havana

There are some pretty slick two-toned fedoras from Christys’ – I think I’ll have to try to find their Cheshire Cat or Crown Hedgehog.

Crwon Seven Trilby

Crown Hedgehog

Cheshire Cat

Does the world really need another travel site? With Expedia, Orbitz, Travelocity, TripAdvisor, Farecast, TripHub, Yapta, and many more, prospective travelers already have more than enough to choose from. (With an estimated $87 billion in travel booked online, it’s no wonder why). Soon they will be able to add Kango to that list.

The startup, which has been in stealth-mode until now, does manage to add a new twist to search travel. It is indexing 18 million opinions and reviews across 1,000 travel-related sites to derive the best travel search results based on what type of trip you want to take. If you are planning a romantic getaway in Big Sur, you will get one set of results. If you specify that you are looking for a family outing instead, you will get another. Or you can look for pet-friendly hotels and activities. Of course, you can also search by price or amenity, like any other travel site. And you can see where each hotel or activity is located on a small Google Map.

But what’s promising about Kango is the way it slices up search subjectively. Kango is building a semantic search engine focussed narrowly on travel. It parses the language in all of those reviews and guides, and categorizes them by generating tags for them. “You cannot wait for users to add tags, you have to derive them,” says CEO Yen Lee. So hotels that have been reviewed across the Web (on sites like Yahoo Travel, TripAdvisor, or Yelp) with words such as “perfect,” “relaxing,” “couples,” “honeymoon,” or “spa” would rank higher in a search for romantic travel. Hotels associated with the words “kitchen,” “pool,” and “kids,” would rank higher in a search for family trips.

Whether this will be enough to draw people from other travel sites is hard to say at this point. But Kango’s executive team has an impressive pedigree. Lee is a former general manager of Yahoo Travel. His search architect, Huanjin Chen, used to be the search architect at eBay. His natural-language search scientist, Boris Galitsky, used to do work for the British government. And his head of marketing, Elliott Ng, headed up marketing for Intuit’s QuickBooks and is the founder of Netcentives.

Lee estimates there are 6 billion to 8 billion travel-related searches done every year, and he thinks Kango can help expose more of the hidden gems in travel that today don’t quite make it to the first page of most travel sites. He plans to make money on travel-specific search advertising, rather than on booking or listing fees.

Kango will be rolling out a limited beta in the next few weeks, and is reserving 100 spots for TechCrunch readers who sign up here.

Lightspeed Venture Partners Blog

Semantic web in travel

Posted: 25 Feb 2008 07:30 PM CST

I saw today that Radar raised a Series B for its semantic web application. As I’ve noted in the past, I am a believer in approaching the semantic web top down rather than bottom up, i.e. by inferring structure from domain knowledge rather than requiring all websites to mark up their content in RDF. The user doesn’t care about the semantic web (just as they don’t care about wikis or web 2.0 or tagging), all they care about is that they can more quickly get to the things that they want. The mechanisms that we use to create this better experience should be invisible to the user.

Two companies that are taking this approach are doing it in travel. Travel is a good vertical to start in for three reasons (i) lots of users (ii) well defined universe of data and (iii) easy to monetize.

The first of these is Tripit. Tripit takes travel confirmation emails from multiple sources and creates a master itinerary. As Mike Arrington noted in Techcrunch:

It’s dead simple to use and it keeps you organized – all you have to do is forward confirmation emails to them when you purchase airline tickets, hotel reservations, car rentals, etc. Tripit pulls the relevant information out of the emails and builds an organized itinerary for you. You can send emails in any order, for multiple trips, whatever. It just figures everything out and organizes it.

This is a great example of the semantic web being used to improve a users experience, invisibly. The user neither knows nor cares that Tripit is inferring structure from the emails (e.g. SFO is an airport in San Francisco, the Clift is a hotel in San Francisco, and since your reservation at the Clift starts on the same day as your arrive into SFO, Tripit will offer driving directions automatically from SFO to the Clift etc). All the user knows is that they automagically have a single itinerary compiled and supplemented with other relevant information (e.g. maps, weather etc).

The second is Kango. Kango helps travelers decide where they want to go by crawling 10,000 sites and 18,000,000 reviews and organizing that content semantically. As Erik Schonfeld of Techcrunch notes:

But what’s promising about Kango is the way it slices up search subjectively. Kango is building a semantic search engine focussed narrowly on travel. It parses the language in all of those reviews and guides, and categorizes them by generating tags for them. “You cannot wait for users to add tags, you have to derive them,” says CEO Yen Lee. So hotels that have been reviewed across the Web (on sites like Yahoo Travel, TripAdvisor, or Yelp) with words such as “perfect,” “relaxing,” “couples,” “honeymoon,” or “spa” would rank higher in a search for romantic travel. Hotels associated with the words “kitchen,” “pool,” and “kids,” would rank higher in a search for family trips.

Again, the semantics are being applied in a way that is invisible to users. Users don’t need to know how key words in reviews are mapped to characteristics like “family” or “romantic”. The company uses its domain knowledge to make this transparent to the user.

Robinson Pass to the Kango Caves

(please check the map on the previous post)

From the summit of the pass the road descends steeply into the Little Karoo, and the landscape becomes drier, with aloes dotting the hills. 1,5 km after the summit there is a picnic site on your right with fine views. As you descend into the Little Karoo you can see the Groot Swart- berg range shimmering on the horizon.

You are now in ostrich country, and it is possible to visit an ostrich show farm. You pass two as you drive towards Oudtshoorn. The first is the Highgate Ostrich Farm, 2,3 km along the second tarred road to your left signposted Volmoed. The second is the Safari Farm, set just off the main road (R328) on your right. Both farms date back to the days of the ostrich-feather boom at the turn of the century.

Shortly after the turn-off to the Safari Farm you reach a T-junction — turn right for Oudtshoorn. At the second set of traffic lights turn left into Baron van Reede Street. As you turn you will see on your left a gracious old stone building that now houses the C P Nel Museum — noted for its ostrich exhibits. Park nearby to visit the museum. (Several establishments in Oudtshoorn offer lunch.)

Continue out of town on Baron van Reede Street, which becomes the main road to the Kango Caves. Note your kms as you leave Oudtshoorn. The road passes a crocodile ranch and the Greystone Wildlife Park, then leads through Schoemanspoort, along the shady banks of the Grobbelaars River, where there are picnic sites on your left.

For an especially attractive picnic spot, turn right onto a gravel road roughly 20 km after leaving Oudtshoorn. 10km along this road you reach the Rus-en-Vrede picnic area (small entry fee, braai places, water, toilets). From the picnic area a 2,5 km road, and then a short footpath, lead to the Rus-en-Vrede waterfall, which plunges 80m into a series of pools. (The path includes steps and narrow bridges, and is not recommended for small children.)

Retrace your route to the tarred road and turn right for the Kango Caves. The road leads directly into the Kango Caves parking area after roughly 6 km. Regular tours of the caves are conducted through the day. You can ascertain the latest starting time before setting out on your journey by telephoning the Oudtshoorn Tourist Bureau (04431) 2221, or the Kango Caves office (04435) 7410.

Kango Caves to George

Return through Schoemanspoort to Oudtshoorn. Drive the full length of Baron van Reede Street and continue on this same street where it veers left slightly and changes its name to Langenhoven Street. Langenhoven Street eventually becomes the R29 to George.

31 km after leaving Oudtshoorn, turn right at the fork for George (the left road leads to Uniondale and Port Elizabeth). As you approach the Outeniqua Pass the road again leads through plantations of hops, and also numerous orchards of apples and pears.

The road rises steeply to the summit of the Outeniqua Pass (799 m) then winds down the southern slopes to the coastal plateau and George. There are beautiful vistas over the whole George area and the sea shimmering in the distance. Several parking areas along the route offer opportunities to enjoy the view.

Afgelopen vrijdag was tegelbeslisdag. Op naar Romani om tegels uit te zoeken en te bestellen, van klassiek wit, Hollands wit, natuursteen, donker grijs en lichtgrijs, daar vind je tegels in alle soorten en maten. Ik kon door de bomen het bos niet meer zien, de medewerkster nam ons mee naar boven, daar zijn ze een grote showroom aan het bouwen met vele verschillende badkamers. Ook al was ie nog lang niet af, dat was echt goed om te zien.
Weer beneden kwamen we tot een keuze: tegen het donkergrijze aan, niet al te strakke tegels. Op de vloer 45bij45 en op de wand van die kleine rechthoekige mozaiekjes. Dat wordt mooi.

Zaterdag kon Reinier weer helpen, Freaky Mister Kango, dus de kango van 11kilo stond gereserveerd bij ‘onze’ Gamma. Weliswaar onder de naam Zwetsman waardoor de Gamma-medewerkers totaal de kluts kwijt waren…meneer Zwetsman in Gouda werd gebeld en nee, deze meneer had inderdaad geen kango gereserveerd want hij was niet aan het verbouwen. Het klopte, de kango was voor ons, Zwetsloot.

De oude oranje tegels en het mozaieke vloertje onder de trap veranderden binnen no time in gruis. Susi was er ook bij en samen met Alice plamuurden en schilderen zij op de bovenverdieping.

Vrijdag waren de vrienden Andre en Rob uit Baarn langs gekomen om te kijken naar hoe de kachel+pijp te installeren. Van beneden naar de zolder was simpel, dat konden ze wel. Maar in de nok op zolder, waar de pijp in een hoek moet en dan de oude schoorsteen in, was ingewikkelder. Zo ingewikkeld, dat er een kop koffie omviel door de zenuwen…Maar, we wilden toch nog meer meningen van experts horen en vroegen Jerry uit Oostzaan langs te komen. Zaterdagochtend in alle drukte van het kango- en schuurmachine geweld stond Jerry zoals afgesproken op de stoep, maar wel met zn vrouw en allergische zoon erbij.
Ook voor Jerry is het vraagstuk van de nok niet eenvoudig, maar hij klonk een stuk meer ervaren.

Reinier was inmiddels toegekomen aan de ‘antieke’ blauwe tegels die in de gehele wc zaten, ohnee, op het plafond zat Zwitsers hout. Hoe verzin je het.

Tsjakke tsjakke tsjakke, Reinier ging helemaal los op de wc-tegels…totdat hij ineens riep: ‘Jochem! Waar kan je het water afsluiten? Ik heb een leiding geraakt!!!’
Gelukkig was het een klein en makkelijk te verhelpen euvel (voor de loodgieter dan) dus niets aan de hand. We hadden alleen geen water meer voor de rest van de middag.

Bijna al het houtwerk op de zolder en een groot deel op de eerste verdieping stond aan het einde van de dag in de tweede grondverf-laag, door het warme weer was er mooi licht en droogde het razendsnel. Goh, het werd nu al zo veel mooier als het schoon wit was.

Maandag begon Rodney (plus kornuiten) met het gipsen van het plafond op de eerste verdieping en in de avond heeft Jochem de trap nog even snel in de eerste grondverf-laag gezet. Dinsdag kwam mijn broer Loet zn rechterhanden weer inzetten, samen met Harrie werden de mdf-platen onder de ramen van de dakkapellen netjes gemonteerd. Toen ik vanavond kwam, was ik blij verrast. Die gipsplaten op het plafond en de mdf-platen onder de ramen, het ziet er steeds meer uit als een echt huis!

Zolder in het (grondverf) wit, de nok moet nog wel gegipst worden.

En beneden zijn ze ook al begonnen met het plafond:

UpTake is a travel information search engine that wants to be your first destination when deciding what to book, where to go, what to do, or where to stay. It is not a replacement to review sites like TripAdvisor or actual booking sites like Expedia. Uptake, previously known as Kango, is in almost alpha stage. Here is a snapshot of how UpTake works:

From the mail, Elliott Ng, VP for Marketing, explains that while Kango expressed positive energy, their team wanted a name that tied directly to what they do.

“Uptake,” as a common word, means quick understanding and comprehension; and gathering up of key facts. We want our new brand UpTake to convey our ability to gather, organize and deliver the web’s collective travel wisdom to help you make trip planning faster.

If you have tried UpTake, let us know of your service experience.

After I wrote the review about Kango.com I emailed Yen Lee and asked him some specific questions about getting product into Kango.com. Yen was gracious enough to answer my questions himself and provided some useful insight into how the sight may grow over time. Here are the questions and Yen’s answers:

T4: How do SME suppliers add their product to Kango or perhaps the better question is how does Kango identify and add supplier product?

YL: Two different answers to a critical initiative for us:

1. SME suppliers will be able to add their product to Kango in the future through a self-submittal. We currently add when they send us email at feedback@kango.com. Any suggestions on how we can better facilitate this?
2. We identify suppliers when we crawl large sites (e.g. yahoo travel) and CVB sites, then we look for their own site and crawl their sites

T4: What things can SME suppliers do to make sure they are found and indexed by Kango?

YL: See (2) above. They can search for their product first, but that’s not necessary (and our name search isn’t great yet anyways)

T4: Will there be marketing opportunities for SME suppliers within the Kango platform?

YL: Yes! Not just pay per click or per reservation; we would like to work with SEM suppliers to take leads via phone, email, fax – whatever fits their current and preferred method

T4: Are there plans to integrate third party XML feeds for supplier product? If so, what steps would these parties have to take in order to partner with Kango?

YL: Yes! They can email me or feedback@kango.com. Definitely a win win as we can get them integrated and out onto Google and it’s generally the easiest way for us to get content. BTW, it need not be XML, for many more simple content-heavy sites, we can use simpler solutions

T4: Will there be a XML feed for Kango metasearch data for syndication?

YL: Eventually. At this point we have a RSS feed.

Thanks again to Yen for the answers. Kango opens up some very exciting opportunities for travel suppliers to connect directly with travelers. I’ll keep my eyes open to see what new initiatives come down the pipe with Kango in 2008.

The travel purchase life-cycle consists of four primary phases: dream, plan, go, and reminisce. For the most part, the big travel websites have been focused on only one phase of the life-cycle: the go phase. Why? Because that’s where the money is. But, what we have begun to see is a shift in how consumers purchase travel online and, as a result, we are seeing a new breed of site develop around the other three, no less important I might add, phases of the travel purchase life-cycle. Kango is one such site. Spearheaded by Yen Lee, former General Manager of Yahoo’s Travel Division, Kango’s development team is stacked with some very impressive minds and it is quite obvious that a lot of thought has gone into the creation of the technology that is the foundation of the system. Kango is in private Beta, but I was invited by Yen to review the site and provide my feedback as a beta tester.

Fig.1 The initial search form is very simple to use.

So what is Kango? Well, based on “About Us” information, Kango uses a sophisticated indexing system to harvest and organize content from across the web and then displays the results based on your travel preferences. For example, I want to go to California with my wife and kids but I’d like to do a little more then just go to Disneyland. The first thing I do is complete the search form which asks whether I am looking for a place to stay or something to do, whether the trip is a family vacation or a romantic getaway, and what types of places I’d like to see. Once submitted, the search returns a variety of results that match my request. Pretty straight-forward.

Fig.2 The results are presented in a logical manner and combined with a map for easy reference.

From a user standpoint, the site does an AMAZING job of making the process extremely simple. Given the fact that most of the sites from which Kango derives its data do not provide APIs or connectors in order to easily access the data in a structured way, it is presumed that Kango fetches the data, analyzes it for relevancy, and then stores it in a meaningful way for display to the user. This is by no means a simple task, hence the brain power required to put it all together and, more importantly, make it look simple.

Fig. 3 The Thing to do detail page is nicely laid out
and contains data aggregated from sites all over the Internet.

Pros: The site is very consumer friendly and has a broad appeal. The dream phase of the travel purchase life-cycle is supported primarily by DMO websites, destination guides, and other dispirate content so Kango seems like a natural fit and makes dreaming easy and fun. The combination of content, photos, and reviews provides a compelling experience that is rich and compelling.

Cons: As I navigated through the site finding all the great places that I wanted to visit on my dream trip I quickly realized that there is no way to save the searches that I have made or any way to add “Things to do” or lodging options to an itinerary. This seems to me to be a huge opportunity for Kango to combine the dream and the plan phases of the travel purchase life-cycle. I think that providing both elements would not takeaway from the search consolidation component of the site and would add considerably more stickiness to the site.

Kango has a winning combination of a great idea, superb execution, brains, and funding. Congratulations to Yen and his team on a truly innovative application.

Founded by Yen Lee, former general manager of Yahoo! Travel, Kango is a travel search and discovery application that aggregates and organizes the myriad of the internet’s travel community and review sites into one place. Full article on Hotelmarketing.com