The Macrosite for News, Analysis and Opinion about the Future of the Internet
DISCUSS   PRINT   Digg   Del.icio.us   Reddit   Email This   TWEET THIS

Web 2.0 Gets Down to Business

Introduction
8/2/2008 4 comments

More than a year ago, Home&Abroad made rich Internet applications an integral part of its business strategy. The online itinerary-planning company needed a more engaging online customer experience – longer and more in-depth interactions are of greater value to the company and its advertisers and travel agency partners. Home&Abroad makes money via advertising and by selling subscriptions to airlines and travel agencies that like the functionality of the site.

That’s where rich Internet applications (RIAs) come in, letting customers efficiently harness diverse content, including maps, widgets, rules engines, and other services needed to develop itineraries, book reservations, and buy items for their journeys. The customized application captures preferences and calls a rules engine that suggests activities and events at a given destination that meet travelers’ interests. Hotels, restaurants, and points of interest can be overlaid on a Google map, with more information and even inclusion in an itinerary just a click away.

Home&Abroad based its RIA development strategy on a set of Ajax integrated tools and libraries called Prototype. Its success is a mark of how rapidly Web development is advancing, thanks to better usability and integration.

“Ajax environments have really evolved,” says Kris Thompson, Home&Abroad’s CTO. “A year ago, it was challenging to get the application to work in different browsers. Today, that is no longer the case.”

And Thompson prizes the ability to tap a wide variety of add-ons. “What we can’t find directly from the Prototype library to handle technical programming details, we can likely find from the open-source subcommunity that has grown up around Prototype and Ajax,” he says.

The application also interoperates with functions supplied by partners through a growing ecosystem of Web services. For example, vacationers can take advantage of personal shopping widgets in Amazon.com to make purchases related to trips they’re planning.

Thompson warns that RIAs alone won’t make for a profitable online venture – any rich Internet app reaches its full potential only when the improved user experience aligns with the underlying business process, so it delivers a relevant result. Miss this mark and you’ll end up, at best, with expensive eye candy. At worst, the resulting application will inject inefficiencies into the business.

Read on...

Next Page: Step Up

DISCUSS   PRINT   Digg   Del.icio.us   Reddit   Email This
Page 1 of 6 Next >
Current display:       newest comments first       display in chronological order
MarkO
Rank: Cave Painter
Tuesday August 19, 2008 10:13:24 AM
no ratings

RIA's are certainly excellent for delivering much more responsive and useful Web applications out to customers, remote salespeople, and suppliers.

But, right now most identity and security for RIA's is a case of "Roll Your Own". If an organization wants to control the usage of RIA's so that only known users can use them, or to protect them against content-level attack (of which there are many for Web 2.0), they generally try to figure this out themselves.This is a recipe for disaster.

Now, full disclosure, I do work for an XML Gateway vendor (Vordel) but hopefully it's useful to look at this screencast we put together about protecting RIA's (including authentication, threat blocking, rate limiting

Here is a blog entry on the subject of identity and security for RIA's (linking to the same screencast).

A follow-up article on "how can you safely deploy RIA's?" would be very interesting I think.

 

 

Rob Geier
Rank: Cave Painter
Friday August 8, 2008 5:39:06 PM
no ratings

Hi James,

Mark Schroeder, the CEO of Home and Abroad would be happy to arrange a demo for you.  He can be reached at  mark@homeandabroad.com. 

Best Regards,

Rob Geier

jepcastelein
Rank: Cave Painter
Friday August 8, 2008 3:42:04 PM
no ratings
The key example of this interesting article is Home & Abroad. I played around with the site for a while, and I was't impressed by their Itinerary editing tool. It uses faceted search, but it didn't work very well. Based on industry best practices I distilled the top 10 rules for good faceted search, and wrote about this on the customer engagement weblog. I hope this is a useful addition to this article.
jwallace
IQ Crew
Wednesday August 6, 2008 10:54:06 AM
no ratings

Hi Rob,

I read the story first here at IE, then saw it on the ('Big Screen') cover of Information Week. I get IW on Tuesday versus Mondays now so..I didn't realize how big of a report the BIG REPORT was.

Is the new on-demand web platform with the desktop-like environment enabling travel companies of all sizes to build company sites and have location-specific content currently available for a demo?

Thanks,

James Wallace

 

The ThinkerNet does not reflect the views of TechWeb. The ThinkerNet is an informal means of communication to members and visitors of the Internet Evolution site. Individual authors are chosen by Internet Evolution to blog. Neither Internet Evolution nor TechWeb assume responsibility for comments, claims, or opinions made by authors and ThinkerNet bloggers. They are no substitute for your own research and should not be relied upon for trading or any other purpose.
a moderated blogosphere of internet experts
Tom Nolle
Tom Nolle   2/9/2010   8 comments
If you’re a slightly gray, mid-level manager who travels a lot, you may be on the way up and worthy of professional respect, but one thing you most definitely are not is “cool.” Still, while today’s youth may think you just crawled out of a paleolithic cave, there may be hope. The iPad from Apple Inc. (Nasdaq: AAPL) (supreme arbiter of coolness) just might make you older guys (or actually old guys like me) cool.
Rob Leathern
Rob Leathern   2/9/2010   5 comments
As we well know, the online echo chamber and its increasingly viral and social components can magnify the propagation speed and distribution of stories and rumors, whether true or false.
Rob Salkowitz
Rob Salkowitz   2/9/2010   6 comments
A remarkable event in world affairs is taking place this week in London, as the first One Young World conference is set to convene.
Ira Winkler
Ira Winkler   2/8/2010   16 comments
In his recent Congressional testimony, Dennis Blair, the U.S. director of national intelligence, stated that the U.S. is "severely threatened" by cyber attacks and that the recent Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) attacks should serve as a wake-up call.
most recent post: MShellC... I agree 100%.
Jart Armin
Jart Armin   2/8/2010   15 comments
Fatal System Error, the book just released by West-coast-based journalist Joseph Menn, is really a public policy statement written as a thriller for a wider reading public. UPDATED 2:45 PM
IETV: the thinkerNet on film
5
of
2pm EST
Tue
Feb 23rd
2pm EST
Thu
Mar 4th
3pm EST
Tue
Mar 9th
an IBM information resource
sponsored content
big blue blog
Todd Watson
IBM is announcing today the first of its Power7 processor-based systems and the Power7 processor itself at an event in NYC.
white papers & case studies
an IBM information resource
sponsored content
Smarter Collaboration: How to Thrive in a Challenging Business Environment
Market conditions are changing faster than ever, and organizations need to improve their agility and adaptability in order to provide better service and improve processes. The ability to work with customers, business partners, and employees as effectively as possible - while at the same time holding down costs - is a key to success.

READ THIS eBOOK
your weekly update of news, analysis, and
opinion from Internet Evolution - FREE!

REGISTER HERE
Wanted! Site Moderators
Internet Evolution is looking for a handful of readers to help moderate the message boards on our site – as well as engaging in high-IQ conversation with the industry mavens on our thinkerNet blogosphere. The job comes with various perks, bags of kudos, and GIANT bragging rights. Interested?

Please email: moderators@internetevolution.com
CMP Media LLC
Internet Evolution – not for thickies
Congress Hits the Snooze Button With China
Ira Winkler
In his
recent Congressional testimony, Dennis Blair, the U.S. director of national intelligence, stated that the U.S. is "severely threatened" by cyber attacks and that the recent Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) attacks should serve as a wake-up call.

CLICK FOR MORE
Lee H. Berke
The Decline & Fall of Broadcast Television

2|9|10   |   1:00   |   No comments


Want to know the future of broadcast television? Take a look at broadcast radio’s past.
Tom Nolle
Everything New Is Old Again

2|9|10   |   2:13   |   6 comments


Research shows that the youth of today like Facebook – but not blogging or Twitter. Does that mean Facebook has won, or just that it's not yet out of favor? Will all the services we see today fade into Ovaltine-or-Wheaties status in just a few years?
what.the.ferraro
Email Marketing Gets Desperate

2|8|10   |   2:31   |   4 comments


Promotional emails will use just about anything timely to get people to buy things. Seriously, anything.
Steve Saunders' Outernet
America, Truck Yeah!

2|8|10   |   1:42   |   5 comments


Steve likes his new Dodge Ram 1500, but hates Chrysler's Web non-sales strategy. Rant on, li'l buddy.
what.the.ferraro
Twits Go Wild for Resignation Tweet

2|5|10   |   1:48   |   4 comments


Jonathan Schwartz is the first Fortune 200 CEO to resign via Tweet. Can he walk on water, too?
Full Nelson
Go With the FLO, Part 2

Part 2 of 2   |  
See complete series
2|5|10   |   2:17   |   3 comments


Fritz and his sweater continue their review of Qualcomm's FLO TV.
Singer at C-Level
Goldilocks & the Data Center

2|4|10   |   3:39   |   2 comments


What kinds of companies are doing the most innovation in the data center? Turns out it's midtier enterprises that are taking the "Just Right" approach.
Full Nelson
Go With the FLO, Part 1

Part of 2   |  
See complete series
2|4|10   |   2:39   |   1 comment


Qualcomm's FLO TV gizmo streams live TV shows. Tragically, they include the O'Reilly Factor
Eurotrash
High & Dry in Barcelona

2|3|10   |   1:08   |   No comments


Ray’s heading to Barcelona for the Mobile World Congress, and he’s not happy about it, the miserable git.
Sweeney Blog
No Sex, Please... It's the Super Bowl

2|3|10   |   2:24   |   2 comments


The Super Bowl ads that CBS rejected are turning up online, generating lots of attention but zero revenue for the broadcaster.