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TripAdvisor launches localized sites for France and Germany

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trip2.jpg Showing its commitment to the European market, travel community Web site TripAdvisor has gain foothold into the French and German travel markets with its new sites TripAdvisor.fr and TripAdvisor.de

“TripAdvisor.de and .fr mark a major milestone in our global deployment. Travel is a global pastime and TripAdvisor represents the views, opinions and interests of travelers around the world, and we recognise that there are also important differences between nationalities. Travel planning and sharing information is one of the top uses of the web in both France and Germany and this initiative will provide those travelers with both unparalleled global access and a local focus,” said TripAdvisor Europe managing director Marc Charron.

Approximately two million travelers from France and Germany already visit tripadvisor.com monthly, indicating interest in TripAdvisor’s unique offering. France and Germany are an integral part of the TripAdvisor global community, and the company expects to see rapid growth in these markets, with the debut of localized sites.

Originally posted on May 29, 2007 @ 5:18 am

EU Grills Google Data Retention Policies

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eu.jpg The European Commission’s Freedom, Security, and Justice Division has requested Google to provide additional information about its data-retention policies.

Article 29 Data Protection Working Party, a group of data protection officials coming from 27 countries, is helping the Commission to validate if there is any violation of EU privacy laws.

Earlier, the Article 29 Working Party the Chair Peter Schaar informed the Mountain View-based search engine that it failed to meet the EU data-retention policies despite making some major readjustments.

Google has not responded to the letter but its Global Privacy counsel Peter Fleischer is quick to defend this new feature.

“Google recently announced a new policy to anonymize our server logs after 18-24 months. We’re the only leading search company to have taken this step publicly. We believe it’s an important part of our commitment to respect user privacy while balancing a number of important factors, such as maintaining security and preventing fraud and abuse,” said Fleischer.

The company expresses its willingness to meet with different privacy stakeholders to improve the system and protect privacy of Internet users.

Originally posted on May 29, 2007 @ 5:04 am

GasBuddy to hit 4 million visitors this year

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gasbuddy.jpg From a big nobody in 2000, Internet site monitoring daily gasoline prices with the help of volunteers called GasBuddy is poised to break a record of 4 million visitors this year. As the price of gasoline gets higher so is the number of visitors of gasoline-monitoring Web sites, including its competitor GasPriceWatch.

GasBuddy allegedly monitors 900,000 gas stations with the help of several thousands of registered volunteers. Knowing that most retailers increase their prices at least twice a day, the growth of these Internet sites signals the heightened concern of consumers over gasoline products.

To date, the national average price of unleaded gas is $3.22, a 13% increase from last year’s $2.86 average.

Nevertheless, some observers believe the system is far from perfect for it mainly relies on volunteers. In some cases, people can easily send bogus reports of low, low prices and mislead vigilant consumers.

According to Petroleum Marketers Association of America president Dan Gilligan, the system is a good idea but warned consumers to remember that if they drive more than 10 miles to save a nickel, they are losing money. He also said there’s no guarantee the price will be the same when they arrive.

For travelers, they simply need to send a message to [email protected] together with their Zip code and GasBuddy will quickly pinpoint the nearest, cheapest stations.

Originally posted on May 25, 2007 @ 2:42 am

Internet Pornography a G8 Priority

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g8.jpg The powerful Group of Eight (G8) shows growing concern over Internet pornography, citing that government authorities alone will not win this crucial battle.

In this regard, G8 is currently coordinating with Interpol for some time now to maximize the capabilities of its International Child Sexual Exploitation Image Database. So far, it contains more than half million images of sexually exploited children and has saved more than 500 children from sexual abuse worldwide.

“Private sector entities including Internet Service Providers, information technology professionals and financial institutions … the media, parents and educators, should be encouraged to consider what role they could play in the fight,” said a statement from G8 interior and justice ministers.

G8 is composed of Germany, the United States, Britain, France, Italy, Canada, Japan and Russia.

Originally posted on May 24, 2007 @ 12:41 pm

Google to offer automatic translation

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google-language.jpg Cashing in on the lucrative non-English speaking international markets, Google will launch a new system designed to automatically translate Internet search requests in 12 different languages – Arabic, French, Italian, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Russian, Japanese, Korean, traditional Chinese and simplified Chinese, and of course, English.

The tools allow Google’s users to enter search requests in their native languages and then choose to have the phrases as well as the accompanying results automatically translated into another language. Also, users can then click on a link and have the entire Web page translated through a service that Google had already been offering.

Just like any multinational companies, overseas expansions add to the bottom line of the business. In the case of Google, it already earned $7.6 B or 72% of Internet revenues from US and UK in 2006. Increasing market share in these markets proves to be a very daunting task given the mounting competition. Conversely, venturing in key international markets can easily rake additional $4.9 billion to $8.7 billion for Google according to American Technology Research analyst Rob Sanderson.

However, the Mountain View-based company will challenge Yahoo!, Web’s 2nd biggest search engine already offering translation tools BabelFish and automatic translation services in Germany, Japan, and France as early as 2005.

Originally posted on May 24, 2007 @ 5:40 am