Sometimes I have to calm myself down and reel myself in.
I was thinking about that in the days following stories I wrote about how Google Sidewiki could be a sideshow for review sites and Why TechCrunch is wrong about Google Sidewiki.
Will consumers really take advantage of the ability to comment about a publishers’ website in a side window visible only to fellow Sidewiki users?
I have to admit that I haven’t opened Sidewiki, which sits in my Google Toolbar, since I wrote those posts. It takes an extra step and who has the time.
In 2005, I wrote about Portaga, which was enabling travel bookings through Microsoft Outlook via a Web services link to Sabre.
Here’s an excerpt from the story:
Don Dodge, a senior technology official for emerging businesses at Microsoft, noted that 400 million people use Microsoft Outlook e-mail daily, so Portaga has navigated a roadblock that stymies many start-ups, namely getting the application in front of users in a familiar setting.
“In the technology business, we spend a lot of time looking for the next big thing,” said Dodge, pointing to the Portaga Travel Manager as being in that category.
I remember e-mailing then-Travelocity CEO Michelle Peluso around that time, asking her if the OTAs were losing sleep over Portaga displacing them. I could have sworn I heard her yawn when she e-mailed back that they weren’t.
I haven’t heard a peep from Portaga since circa 2006-2007.
TripWare, which launched in June, also is attempting to get traction through travel bookings in Microsoft Outlook.
I wish TripWare all the best, and hope it will be successful.
Start-ups often fail because their management was clueless, their funding was inadequate, or for a bunch of other reasons. Perhaps Portaga had a great idea and TripWare will take it to the next level. We’ll see.
When the post-mortems about failed companies are written, it is their ideas that were important.
Right idea. Wrong time, perhaps.
There are loads of examples. If you have any, please share below in the comments.
So, I am not ready to annoint Google Sidewiki as the TripAdvisor bulldozer.
Then there’s Android and Google Wave.
I hear they could be the next big things.
Related posts:
So I guess we’re all over Twitter…?
I love this post!
I have been pushing this perspective for years. Thank you Dennis.
Because what we are doing is B2B in a tricky sector (small tour operators / activity companies) no one thinks we are sexy, no one is that interested in our news, no one invites me to speak at conferences about what we are doing etc (moan moan moan!)
But we are still going, and still battling, and most likely will still be battling long after some of the other more sexy services are consigned to history.
Bill Gates once famously said ‘we overestimate the importance of things in the short term and underestimate their impact in the long term.’ I remember seeing Bill Gates in 1993, after he had made his second billion or so, but walking through a crowd completely anonymously.
That’s how tech innovation works. Travel experts know the flaws of the travel industry intimately and know something has got to change, someday. But there are hard changes and there are easy changes.
Hard changes are getting travel agents to learn how to use a different system. As much as people complain, there is great comfort in being able to kvetch about a familiar presence.
Easy changes are getting people to try something new leveraging an existing platform. Farmville went from less than 360 users in June 2009 to 54 million today based on this principle. That’s an important lesson for would-be travel innovators.
The conceit of Google SideWiki is that it leverages use of the Google toolbar. If you didn’t use it before, chances are good SideWiki won’t cause you to start using it. But for those that do, there are some interesting possibilities. For example, if you run a corporate travel organization, when your members see something they like on a website, they can use SideWiki to ask you to find a better deal.
Thanks for the well wishes Dennis! Without going into the details on how Tripware OutBook is different from Portaga, I will say that Tripware’s goal is to make business travel simply effective by implementing Behavioral Travel Management (our patent-pending technology). Essentially, we at Tripware ask ourselves what are the natural, repetitive, habitual, and/or desired behaviors of business travelers? Our first response to that was that business travelers “start” their trips by looking at their calendar. Hence, Tripware OutBook. We are working hard to make Tripware a success. Our biggest challenge is getting the word out. Thank you for mentioning us Dennis!
Douglas: As you and I and the world all know, Twitter was/is the next big thing:)
Alex: Thanks so much. I guess tour operators lost their sexiness, in the eyes of the trenderatti, when Expedia and Travelocity started pushing dynamic packaging. Wholesalers is a very important sector around the world, of course. I would invite you to speak at my conference (no more moaning:) any time to hear some of the cool things that might be going on.
Brian: I agree that changing habits and the existing way of doing things is tough work. As you mention, travel agents have GUI desktops with branded fares available, but many love the familiarity of their (shall we call it poor media instead of rich media) green-screen commands.
But, as Douglas alludes to, look how Twitter has changed all of our habits. When you wake up in the morning, do you go first to the newspaper website or Twitter. I do the latter.
And, that’s an interesting angle that you mention about Google Sidewiki. However, I doubt it will be a fast enough mode to use in the way you mention.
Dean: I’m interested in hearing more about how TripWare differs from Portaga. And who does the fulfillment on the travel bookings?
Getting the word out? Let’s see, I’m sure you have a few options:)
Dennis – once again, you’re right on the money….and by the way, money is what did Portaga in a couple of years ago. Not enough. But, when you’re launching a new application and targeting the unmanaged business traveler (herding cats), I suppose there’s never enough. Launching consumer sites is a tough business – the streets are littered with good ideas and anxious VCs. I could go into all of the mishaps that Portaga encountered, but we don’t have enough space for that. I hope TripWare can learn from Portaga’s mistakes, and I wish them success. It’s a great idea…but then, the devil is in the details and in successful execution. What’s the next big thing? Anyone have a crystal ball?
Thanks, Susan. Yes, from you and TripWare, I would really like to hear about the Portaga-TripWare differentiation. Well, at least we know, I think, that Google won’t enable trip-booking from Gmail.
Dennis- Good to hear im not the only one that gets excited, sends off a few dramatic emails and gets less than enthusiastic responses in return. It’s frustrating!