Decision Assistance

Al and I and the third James are off to the Travolution summit tomorrow. I am betting that one of the main themes will be what I call ‘decision assistance’ - helping the user navigate through the reams of online guff to make an informed choice. Profiling, user recommendation, segmenting of email campaigns - all are geared towards pushing people choices that are relevant, by knowing something about what they will like.

It occurs to me that the people who own the best and most useful profile of you are your friends. If you can harness them as part of your distribution platform - then that will become very powerful. Trip Advisor have made a start linking friends recommendations together - and that is absolutely the right direction to go in. Dopplr too. Much as the rest of Trip Advisor’s UGC reviews provide useful background, we know little or nothing about the people who have posted them, their likes and dislikes (air conditioning in scotland anyone?).

What is the most powerful stimulus to making a holiday decision, one that will have you scribbling on random bits of paper after late night parties, scaps that will reappear a year or two later, stained and dog-eared, to be acted on? The little finca recommended by a friend - or even just someone you sat next to at dinner…