Northwest Passages by Steve Murch

I sure hope so!

Would be a great move for Microsoft:

http://furrier.org/2008/05/19/silicon-valley-rumor-microsoft-to-buy-yahoo-search-and-then-facebook/

Free IE7 Recipe Search Gadget

Now you can search the BigOven archive right from IE7's search window, regardless of which website you are currently viewing. 

Click here to add BigOven search to IE7's quick search window.   It's free!

Visit the BigOven.com links page for more free stuff.  Happy cooking!

My FriendFeed

FriendFeed.com is a relatively new social network aggregation service. 

If you want to get the latest postings on my blog, plus the recipes I rate on BigOven.com, plus photos I upload... here's my Friendfeed:

http://friendfeed.com/stevemur?format=atom

Simply add that to your RSS reader.

Here it is on a web page:

http://friendfeed.com/stevemur

Shopping list for Microsoft - A better way to spend billions

With the current collapse of the Yahoo! deal, Microsoft may be wondering what to do with all that cash.

I firmly believe the "semantic web" is coming and could be a disruptive force in current Google revenue streams.  If I were still at Microsoft, I'd be strongly advocating that Microsoft focus on a disruptive innovation in search -- namely, to do a better job with microformats, structured search, and understanding the intent of a searcher.  I'd also be adding companies like Facebook that have a really well thought-through platform with millions and millions of invested users.  Facebook users, I'd argue, are probably more invested in Facebook than Yahoo users are in Yahoo.

Some companies that I'd have my eye on if I were still at Microsoft:

• Powerset -- a very interesting company doing natural-language and semantic analysis to deliver better search results.  <$1 billion
• Facebook -- Microsoft can still realize everything Passport and "Hailstorm" should have been.  Oh, and add tremendous ad inventory, better user-profile-understanding and 70 million users at current writing.  $15 billion.
• Friendfeed -- very simple social aggregation technology, but very clever.  Roll it into the developer platform of Facebook.  <$1 billion
• TiVO -- This is a bit random, but if there's spare change left over, at "just" $808 million at this writing, TiVO still seems cheap to me, after the many fits and starts of Microsoft's ITV efforts.  I would buy it, help them teach Microsoft about developing passionate users, expand upon TiVO's great distribution/partnerships with cable companies, and release combined XBox/TiVO/Zune efforts.  Truly connected entertainment.  $800 million

There -- that's a whole lot of Google competitive value for under half of what they were willing to spend for Yahoo. 

Facebook, MySpace and Google Open Up

I read with great interest on Friday that Facebook is soon going to let websites like BigOven.com and ClearStay.com -- two sites I'm involved with -- access user profiles.   That is huge news.  You can read about it on the facebook developers blog.

MySpace (the first large site to this "data portability" party) and Google (rumored to be announcing Monday) are also opening up.  Yahoo! is getting into the act with "Yahoo! Open", and "Search Monkey", which allow developers to tap into the social profiles as well as the search results.

Let's say you're a Facebook user.  This seems to mean:

• With your permission, BigOven.com could access your profile information, a list of your friends, for instance to let you know what recipes on the site your Facebook friends liked, or to open up a private channel for you to suggest recipes for each other.
• Now, the above scenario is possible today with Facebook's API, but only if you built a mini-application inside of Facebook.  With Facebook connect, it appears BigOven.om will be able to fetch and display useful information about the user, and populate user profiles, access friends lists, and more.  Very interesting.

Facebook now has an astonishingly high 70 million members at this writing.  (BigOven.com has a little over 100,000.)  So we've got a pretty good incentive to get cracking on this.

At the simplest level, this will appear to the user in the form of only having to enter social profile information once.  If you've told Facebook that you and Jim are friends, and that you're a female from Orlando, you shouldn't have to re-tell that to BigOven.com.  So at a very minimum, this reduction in friction should be a terrific boon to vertically-focused social networks like BigOven.com.    We've got a "friends" concept at BigOven.com, but it's seen fairly little use so far.  This should help tremendously.

Further reading:  Facebook Connect -- Another Step to Open Social Networks, Charlene Li, Forrester

It remains to be seen just how open social networks will be with their data, but I love this race toward openness -- it gives rapid-development sites a leg-up in establishing critical mass.

BigOven - 100,000 Registered Users

Big milestone for BigOven.com -- our 100,000th member registered today. 

Evolution of the web -- interesting video

Escapia launches Authentic Vacation Rental Reviews

Vacation rentals are a terrific value for travelers.  Often, for the same price as a hotel room, you can get a home with a kitchen -- maybe even a pool, or extra amenities like a big screen TV, hot tub, or mountain bikes.  More room per person for less money, and all the comforts of home... what's not to like? 

At Escapia, we believe that a major factor that has held back vacation rentals is the inconsistency of the quality experience, and the mismatch between traveler expectations and the actual experience.  One of the best ways to combat this is with reviews from past guests.  Real traveler reviews definitely help consumers get a better feel for what's good, and what's not-so-good, about a particular vacation spot.

But how often have you seen a product review on the web, and thought, if it's incredibly positive, that it might be from the seller... or if it's bad, that it might be from a competitor?  Wouldn't it be nice to be able to only see reviews from verified, real customers?

Last week, Escapia's ClearStay.com Vacation Rental Directory switched on more than 12,000 authenticated reviews from past guests. 

ClearStay.com now has more authenticated guest reviews than any other site on the Internet, and more are being added every day.

ClearStay also gives you insight into overall ratings for property managers as a whole. 

Now, when you visit the site, you'll know what past real past guests had to say about the property.  ClearStay is in a unique position to authenticate past guest reviews since it powers the property manager's backoffice. 

Here's the press release:

http://www.escapia.com/vacation_rental_industry/press/08_05_clearstay_reviews.html

ClearStay.com from Escapia Launches the Largest Collection of Authenticated Guest Reviews in the Vacation Rental Industry

SEATTLE – May 8, 2008 – Escapia, Inc., the leader in web-based software for professionally managed vacation rentals, announced the launch of ratings and reviews on the company’s consumer website ClearStay.com. This breakthrough program provides travelers with the convenience and confidence they seek when booking vacation rental homes.

With the launch of the new program, ClearStay.com has the largest number of validated and authenticated reviews on vacation rental homes available anywhere on the web. Since only past guests who have stayed in the vacation rental homes are invited to participate, the reviews are always certain to come from validated guests. Escapia has the ability to offer this through the seamless integration of ClearStay.com with the company’s vacation rental software platform. This ensures that all reviews and ratings are authentic and validated, building trust not only in that home but in the overall vacation rental industry.

“Travelers typically have fantastic vacations when they rent a home from professional vacation rental managers. However, without information from past guests, they have difficulty choosing a home to rent with confidence that it will meet their expectations,” said Escapia and ClearStay CEO Bill Furlong. “Now ClearStay gives travelers more reviews they can trust from past guests than any other site on the Web. That’s just what travelers need to book their vacation with confidence.”

The average rating received by homes on ClearStay.com demonstrates the exceptional experience people have when renting a vacation home from a professional manager. With over 12,000 reviews from past guests, the average rating is 4.5 out of 5 stars for homes listed on ClearStay.com. Over 90% of past guests recommend the home they rented to others. The reviews are not edited by Escapia or the property management company and give an open and honest account of the guest’s experience.

The launch of guest reviews is just one part of ClearStay.com’s commitment to giving consumers an online destination where they can easily find, choose, and book vacation rentals they can trust.

• All homes on ClearStay.com are managed by professional vacation rental managers committed to providing guests with a great vacation.
• Ratings and reviews on thousands of homes let travelers get feedback from past guests before they book.
• Availability calendars on ClearStay.com are automatically updated with up-to-the-second accuracy.
• ClearStay.com gives travelers exact rate quotes on the total cost of the rental without calling or sending an email.
• Online booking on ClearStay.com is reliable, safe, secure and available 24 hours a day.

BigOven Moves up to #19 on list of Seattle 2.0

BigOven.com has cracked the Top 20 list!

In the April traffic rankings of Web 2.0 companies based in Seattle, BigOven came in at #19, moving up 5 places from last month, and beating out venture-financed companies like Bag Borrow or Steal, Redfin, Mpire, AdReady, ImageKind, Avvo.com and SecondSpace. 

When focusing just on "Business to Consumer" (B-to-C) companies, it's #16 on the list.  I'm only guessing here, but I think the ratio of unique users attained per employee is at or near #1.   BigOven is approaching 1 million unique users visiting the site each month.

The rankings of Seattle 2.0 companies is an average of Compete.com and Alexa.com rankings, and is just for fun.  They need to be taken with a grain of salt, because both Compete.com and Alexa.com have flaws.  (I've noticed that they seem to undercount unique user traffic by about 40% in the past.)

Escapia -- Record First Quarter, New Online Demo

At Seattle-based Escapia Inc., the world leader in web-based software as a service (SAAS) for the vacation rental industry, we're pleased to report that the first quarter of 2008 was a record in many dimensions -- new properties managed using the software, traffic to our distribution network, and more.   More in our press release.

Also, the team just posted a great online overview of what makes Escapia's solution so unique and powerful.  In a word, it's the only solution that integrates property manager websites, reservation desk, and vacation rental marketing solutions for property managers.   Watch the video here.

We're pretty excited about the opportunity in the $18 billion US vacation rental industry.