Sheraton Hotels & Resorts, the leading brand by Starwood Hotels & Resorts continues to lead the way on the Web Marketing front by embracing new web, travel and guest preference trends. The "Share & Belong" campaign was a huge success, with Sheraton guests sharing their travel experiences and photographs on Sheraton.com.

Now, Sheraton.com has set the bar even higher for the hospitality industry...as far as embracing the web and Travel 2.0 trends go. The company now features a Vacation Ideas section, incorporating a buzz cloud based on travel stories submitted by guests; a Special Offer Search Engine; RSS Feeds; Recommendations; Interactive maps and weather by geo-location...and even an introduction of 'Total Cost Pricing', where guests can see all applicable charges and taxes before making a booking!

Four Points by Sheraton, the Starwood Hotels brand that focuses on honest, uncomplicated comfort has just launched a few spots for television highlighting the brand's core values. In essence, the message is that "Comfort isn't complicated"

Just noticed that Google has added a page dedicated to Ad professionals or companies that manage multiple Google Adwords accounts for themselves or on behalf of clients.

Designed for professionals who currently manage or want to manage multiple AdWords client accounts, the Google Advertising Professionals program can help you become a more successful ad manager – for free.

eComXpo October 24-26 2006: The successful virtual exposition / tradeshow for eCommerce and Online Marketing professionals is back this October, and this time the entry is completely free.

What is it?
- First online virtual tradeshow for eCommerce Marketers.
- An easy, quick way to keep up with this rapidly evolving marketplace including email, search, affiliate, regulatory, branding, advertising, and technology trends and challenges.
- All the benefits of a top tradeshow, without the costs, hassles, or travel that make traditional tradeshows out of reach for 98% of participants.

A few years ago, very few people had the knowledge or confidence in online travel bookings in India, not to mention the weak infrastructure that supported it. The last few years have seen a tremendous shift in the way people view online bookings - the success of the Indian Railways and some airlines in this field has greatly boosted the confidence of the average consumer, and online travel booking technology is becoming more and more sophisticated and targeted to the Indian traveller.

Some of the major hurdles a few years ago still pose a significant problem though, i.e. low credit card and internet penetration plus the number of SME's and family businesses that constitute the bulk of the active economy.

Still, a sevenfold increase in online travel spending is forecasted by PhoCusWright in the next couple of years...and this is cause for celebration and a pat on the back - the 'elephant' is fast becoming the 'e'-tiger!

The discussions and ideas about Web 2.0 rage on...and the travel and hospitality sector seems to be listening too. Traditionally slower to jump onto the tech and web trends bandwagon, some hospitality companies are making an active effort to embrace Travel 2.0. John Bray of PhoCusWright discusses the initiatives taken by TripAdvisor, Yahoo! Travel and Starwood Hotels & Resorts (Four Points Website, The Lobby SPG Blog).

Definition: Web 2.0 is a term often applied to a perceived ongoing transition of the World Wide Web from a collection of websites to a full-fledged computing platform serving web applications to end users. Ultimately Web 2.0 services are expected to replace desktop computing applications for many purposes.

The jury's still out on an acceptable definition of Travel 2.0, but it has to do with going beyond traditional web offerings and embracing user-generated content and social media.

MySpace Is Fastest Growing among Top Web Brands, Google Maintains Double Digit Growth

NEW YORK– August 10, 2006– Nielsen//NetRatings, a global leader in Internet media and market research, announced today that user-generated content sites, platforms for photo sharing, video sharing and blogging, comprised five out of the top 10 fastest growing Web brands in July 2006. Image hosting site ImageShack ranked No. 4 among July’s fastest growing Web brands, increasing 233 percent, from a unique audience of 2.3 million to 7.7 million (see Table 1). Heavy.com, a video sharing site, took the No. 5 spot, increasing 213 percent, from 965,000 to 3.0 million unique visitors. Photo sharing site Flickr followed at No. 6, growing 201 percent from 2.1 million to 6.3 million unique visitors. Other user-generated content sites that made it into the top 10 fastest growing Web brands were MySpace, with a 183 percent year-over-year increase, and Wikipedia, with a 181 percent year-over-year increase.

"NORWALK, Conn.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug. 31, 2006--Priceline.com(R) (Nasdaq: PCLN) announced today the launch of a new, enhanced Name Your Own Price(R) hotel reservation service full of new features requested by priceline.com customers."

"Priceline.com listened to customers' suggestions for how to make our Name Your Own Price(R) hotel service even better and is pleased to respond today the addition of several frequently requested enhancements," said priceline.com's Senior Vice President, Hotels, Tim Gordon. "In addition to offering the best deals on or off the Web, priceline.com's Name Your Own Price(R) hotel service now provides significantly enhanced speed and convenience."