If Travel Bloggers are Expert Travellers, Why Aren’t We Designing Travel Experiences?

by Alastair McKenzie RSS 20 Comments
Tour group in the backstreets of Barcelona

It’s a form of celebrity endorsement. Celebrity chefs create signature dishes and menus for airlines and cruise lines. Celebrity designers create whole hotels. So shouldn’t our celebrity travel bloggers be creating travel experiences and tours?

Take a look at the blog sector that always leads us in terms of innovative business models, monetization and industry relations – Fashion.

This week it was announced that fashion blogger Emily Johnston (@fashionfoiegras) has designed a new handbag – a  blogger-friendly handbag Continue Reading

The ‘Six Degrees of Separation’ have shrunk to 4.74 says Facebook

by Alastair McKenzie RSS 1 Comments
Two men shake hands in open landscape

The popular notion that the Internet has turned the world into an ever-shrinking ‘global village’ appears to be born out by some research from Facebook.

The ‘Six Degrees of Separation’ concept, first proposed in a 1929 short story called ‘Chain Links’ by Hungarian author Frigyes Karinthy, holds that any two people are socially connected by an average of five intermediaries. It was John Guare’s play in 1990 and subsequent movie that brought the concept to the attention of the public Continue Reading

Fed up with Google not doing what you tell it?

by Alastair McKenzie RSS 1 Comments
Re-enactment soldiers marching out of synch

Well last week they fixed that problem.

Now, on Google search, there is an option to search for exactly what you type in – no more, no less.

It’s called Verbatim.

On their blog, Corin Anderson, Principal Engineer Google Search, explained that in normal mode Google’s algorithms “improve” your query as you type it – correcting spellings and substituting synonyms.

“In most cases, Google’s algorithms make things better for our users – but in some rare cases, we don’t find Continue Reading

Pay a Blogger Day

by Alastair McKenzie RSS 4 Comments
Boy putting money into buskers' guitar case

Sounds promising doesn’t it?

Social media payments site, Flattr has nominated next Tuesday (29 Nov) as Pay a Blogger Day and has set up a dedicated webpage at PayaBlogger.org.

The idea is that blog readers reach into their pockets and pay a tip (via Flattr) to their favorite bloggers.

Why? Well, in their blog Flattr say that Pay a Blogger Day is:

our effort to put the bloggers in the spotlight to recognize the value they Continue Reading

Southern Sweden To Run A Combined Travel Press & Blogger Trip

by Alastair McKenzie RSS 8 Comments
Stallholder serving shopper at christmas market in Skane, Sweden

This week sees another blog trip heading to Sweden.

On Friday four bloggers and a print magazine journalist will head to the region of Skåne in southern Sweden. Their 2-night fam trip is being hosted by Visit Sweden and the regional tourist office of Skåne. Its purpose is to bring this largely unknown region, which has just been made more accessible by a new  Ryanair service from London Stansted to Malmo, to the attention of the Continue Reading

Alarming Growth of Malware on Android Devices Is Bad News For Travel Bloggers

by Alastair McKenzie RSS 0 Comments
Man holding a smartphone

There’s a double warning for travel bloggers concerning the explosive growth of malware on Android devices.

Security firm, Juniper Networks reports a 472% increase in Android malware samples since July 2011, and they’ve produced an infographic that spells out the danger.

The problem is that anyone can develop and publish an application to the Android Market.  According to Juniper hackers are developing all sorts of nasty surprises for un-suspecting users by gaining root access on the device and Continue Reading

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