The Seattle-Search.com Blog

At the Search Engine Strategies Travel Show held last week, Microsoft Search Media Analyst Janine Patrick, reminded those assembled at the Marriott Waterfront from Hilton Hotels to TripAdvisor, that adCenter demographics can allow advertisers to target age, gender, and geographic location in their search campaigns — something Google and Yahoo! have yet to touch.

I could not resist asking the obvious follow-on, at least obvious to me as one of the first certified MSN adExcellence members in the the Pacific Northwest, why the demographic features have not been tied to MIcrosoft parameters.

Imagine, for example, if you could use adCenter demographic targeting and incremental bidding, and that the system would allow you to customize the parameters of your MSN-Live Search ad so that it displayed a customized message tailored exclusively for the user profile being targeted. Such is the power of demgraphic mining IF the result can be combined with targeted message delivery. “An excellent idea!” Janine praised, and she will see that it finds it way to the product develpment team. [24x7]

Farecast.com, the airfare prediction pundits, have announced the launch of Farecast Deals, a new service that leverages the science of airfare data and advanced analytics to provide consumers a usable and authentic approach to airfare deals.

No other travel website helps consumers know “what” is a deal and “why” to buy now when shopping for cheap flights. Each day, Farecast utilizes billions of airfares to provide its free airfare predictions, and now uses this data to help consumers uncover cheap tickets from their airport.

“Any website can claim to have the best deals, but many of those deals
are based on marketing, not science,” said Hugh Crean, Farecast’s president
and chief executive officer. “Farecast.com is the only travel website that
uses the power of over 175 billion airfares to help consumers understand
what is truly a good deal and why to buy now.” Read the rest of this entry »