HotelAuthority.org - a new nationwide travel site

Hello all,

Seems like it has been forever and a day since I have posted on this blog. After feverishly building one destination site after another I decided to take a small break. Not really a vacation, this month long slowdown allowed me to focus on just 2 sites, my chef site (aGreatChef.com) and a new, nationwide travel site. HotelAuthority.org is a bit different than the destination sites in the past as my wholesale partner has made vast improvements to their system and the range of products they offer.

1. Rental cars - rental cars are now available on all destination sites.
2. Flights - Flights has been enabled on HotelAuthority.org.
3. Attraction tickets - are now available outside of the soCal entertainment area.

With these additions, this new site offers a great alternative to the large corporate sites and is independently owned and operated. If you are looking for great deals, wanting to pay less in fees and are sick and tired of large corporations then this site may just be for you.

HotelAuthority.org currently offers hotel reservations in the US and Canada. Mexico is next in line for activation and should be live by the fall. Please check this site out and if you have any comments I would love to hear/read them. Just post it to this entry and I will respond in due course.

HappyTravels,

theGuru

Yahoo Farechase is a scam!!!

OK...So here is the deal...

Yahoo has the marketing power of millions of dollars behind them, and with MSN gaining ground they are running scared.

I checked out their new service (if you can call it that) and have found the following,

San Diego to Kahului Maui...Aloha flies direct.

Yahoo Farechase - 575.00,

Aloha airlines- 542.00,


I guess what this says it that Yahoo is nothing but a scam site backed by alot of marketing. Search the independent travel sites and you will save $$$, just as this example illustrates.

Happy travels and boycott Yahoo's new scam travel search engine!

theGuru

New Hawaii sites and great hotel deals!

So I have been working my @!$% off and have not been posting but...things have been getting done. I have rebuilt the sites for Kauai, Maui, Wailea and Hawaii. Along with the new look and feel, there is some new content too.

Please check out these sites if you are planning a trip to Hawaii. I am going back to Oahu for 3 days for some sun, fun and a bit of work, so look for some more photos and great content when I update the Waikiki Beach site soon.

theGuru

MSN beats Google and Yahoo on search.

Not that I have said this before, but I have been saying that Microsoft's new search engine (they finally built their own) was displaying better and more relevant results that the other, old and tired search engines. Sniff around this blog and you will find the page that I discuss this subject and sorry for the use of some of the language;).

Anyway I have been vindicated as someone else believes this too.

MSN Bests Google & Yahoo in Search Shootout

Interlink, a Cincinnati web marketing research, search engine optimization and consulting firm, recently ran some tests to assess performance of major (and minor) search engines. Surprisingly, MSN took top honors in relevancy.

"MSN bested the top two search providers, along with Ask, AOL, Gigablast and Wisenut, when all five factors were considered: relevancy, freshness of content, failure rate, difficult search results, and non-organic or extra features. Difficult searches were queries such as "“car dealer fargo north dakota"” and "appliance repair des moines".

Please check this engine out, if you do not already and enjoy watch search was meant to be.

Here is the link to the entire article,

http://blog.searchenginewatch.com/blog/060502-164321

theGuru.

Global warming and Hawaii

So we all know about the effects of global warming...right? Strong storms, melting ice and more freaky weather than you can shake a stick at. So it should not come as any suprise that Hawaii is having its share of wierd weather (which at the time of this writing should be passed). Here are a few things that have happened in Hawaii in the last 60 days...

1. About a month ago a 100 year old dam on Kauai broke, killing a few unlucky folks and flooding a small town.

2. Kauai also (this week) received 92 inches of rain. That's right 92 inches!

3. Storm runoff flooded the city of Honolulu's sewer system, dumping raw sewage (ew) into the Ala Wai canal. The canal runs to the ocean in the middle of Waikiki beach....so the city has posted signs reminding tourists and locals to stay out of the water.

4. Most of the airlines have discounted tickets, both interisland and from the mainland. Who says global warming is bad.

The interisland flight discounts are a sort of fare war, as a new interisland airline has stepped into themix with SouthWest airlines type fares. Go! airlines, part of the Mesa air group is now offering 39 dollar interisland fares....all the time. The flights dont go until June 9th, but you can still get these tickets now and on the cheap. Here is the link to the site,

http://iflygo.com/

Sure beats paying 78 dollars a flight. This has nothing to do with the weather and doesn't effect your trip before June but...some of the hotels are a bit nervous at the moment. Seems that the sun hasnt been out much so the hotels are offering deals, deals, deals.

http://hotels-in-honolulu.com offers great Honolulu hotels, and does offer hotels throughout the islands with discounted, pre-negotiated rates. If you are thinking of heading on over to Hawaii now is the time to go, as everything is now on the cheap.

theGuru

The demise of Yahoo Search

So Yahoo has claimed that they have updated their index as of yesterday. I think update is a play on words. This was once a great search engine, now it is (much like our gov't and Duke Cunningham) run by special interests and is not offering up even close to the most relevant results that they should.

Well how could this be you ask.

So what Yahoo has turned into is a pay for placement search engine. That means that the boys and girls up in Sunnyvale have sold out the Internet as it was once known. Yahoo is now on a path of turning into a very large affiliate marketing company veiled as a search engine. Follow this link to see the companies offerings,

http://docs.yahoo.com/info/affiliates/

I guess since Google is kicking their ass not only in search and in Technology advancement (and so is MSN!), but in serving up relevant results and offering new/updated sites a chance to be seen that Yahoo had to do something. But this, come on. I believe that Yahoo thinks that we, the Internet public have a "herd mentality" when it comes to search. Do they really think that we will buy the crap that they serve up as results forever? So if you have a shitty site and a pocket full of cash head on over to Yahoo, as they will be glad to take your money.

You would think that just having a great search engine that serves up relevant, organic listing would be enough. Great relevance means more traffic...means more cash in advertising...means more visitors...means more cash in your pocket at the end of the quarter. But not Yahoo, noooooooooooooooooooooooooooo. If I wanted to eat a chocolate covered shitcicle I would, but I like 50/50 bars and I am not now, or in the future going to buy into the scheme that Yahoo offers a great search engine. I once did, but no longer.

Thanks guys (and girls) for finally selling out the Internet. I hope that you all, including Duke Cunningham and Jack Abramoff can all play shuffleboard at the Palo Alto country club and have lunch at Blue Chalk. You certainly deserve it. Yahoo will then be an affiliate marketing company and we all will sit around and laugh about what a crappy search engine you were, much like we all laughed at Pets.com and that stupid little puppet.

Hey, speaking of puppets...

theGuru

Some fun with Search

OK,

So I am leaving to go fishing this am (in 4 hours) and stumbled on this and thought I would share it.

MSN is offering prizes, yes free stuff for those who try out the new engine. If you have read this blog you will know that I like the new results (all the moldy old websites are GONE!!!) so follow this link,

MSN search

Good luck and happy searching. I am off to catch some zzzzzzzzs b4 the fish bite.

theGuru.

Hawaii

So I have been working on some of the Hawaii sites and found out that Aloha is having another sale on interisland flights. 39 bucks each way isnt too bad to get from the big island to Kauai. But enough about that. I have uploaded some photos in and around Honolulu on the Oahu Hotel Authority's site, OahuHotels.org. They are set up as wallpapers (free) for your noncommerical use. I hope you enjoy them as much as I did making them. Follow this link to check them out, Oahu pictures.

I just finished the "new" Honolulu and Hollywood sites (new look and feel) and have been working 13+ hour days to get them done. Follow these links and leave a message to let me know what you all think! Here are the links, Honolulu hotels & Hollywood hotels. Now its on to the Phoenix, Portland & Anaheim sites before I get into building the sites for Branson and Phily. Then its a redo of the .ws sites and quite possible some time off. Can you believe!

theGuru

San Francisco

Have you ever wanted to head off to the city by the bay for a couple of days of R&R? Ya know, great dining, hop a boat to Alcatraz, maybe take in the Farmers Market at the Ferry building or rent a car and run up for some wine tastings in Napa. Well I sure have lately and with a little thought I bet you would too.

I had an old site for SF (I lived there for 8 years) and I have just created a new template. It's amazing to me that after 6 years away, writing about a destination could bring back so many memories. Great Italian food in North Beach, the Wharf for dungeness crab and clam chowder, Union Square for shopping and a drink or 2, baseball with the Giants and Chinatown dim sum. Now I am really missing it and my start to plan a trip to see some old friends in April.

If you are looking at visiting San Francisco soon, check out my travel site. I have tied into a great hotel database and with rates that beat the big 3 on hotels and attraction tickets it will be well worth your time. Have a warm bowl of chowder and let me know how your trip went. Here is the link to the site, San Francisco hotels.

Thanks for stopping by and enjoy SF!

theGuru.