Travel Information Without Travel Sales Pitches

I get so many announcements about sites which are designed to sell things, or to be roundups for e-commerce information, that's it's startling (and refreshing) to find out about a site that claims to *exclude* that kind of information from its search results. And though Travelazer has some problems, I hope it gets them straightened out. This is a good idea.

Travelazer ( http://www.travelazer.com/ ) is in beta. The front page has some links to travel information in various categories and a query box. I searched for "Outer Banks." I got 33 results, with editorial information on the Outer Banks, but yes, also sites dedicated to vacation packages and getaways. Way up in the upper right part of the page were pointers to search for "Outer Banks" in some other more travel-oriented sites; I would have liked to see those links more prominent.

For a site that is trying to provide non-commercial information in the search results, I'm finding the advertising kind of irritating. It doesn't appear to be contextual (OR I'm incapable of understanding how a search for the Outer Banks should lead me to an ad on Zambia). Medallion ads float on the page and a banner ad's at the bottom. Better ten text ads than one banner ad, in my preference.

On page two of the results things got worse. The first result on page two was for information on Hong Kong, followed by Alaska and Thailand. I can't decide if there was some true weirdness going on or if the quotes were dropped from the search on page two. Later on the page the search gets back on track with results related to the Outer Banks.

The idea is good; the site needs work. Here's what I'd do if I were Travelazer: identify editorial sits with heavy travel content (like National Geographic). Introduce those into my search engine as a set and give them a huge relevancy bump. Heck, team up with FindArticles or some other editorial collection to spider their travel collection. Then create an extremely conservative spider to trawl the net for more travel information. And make sure the quotes work (I still can't figure out page two.) Worth a look; the possibles are huge.

Posted in the following categories: World-Travel | TrackBack
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