A few month ago, I poked some Airbus-sized holes in Google Flights, the search giant’s lackluster attempt to offer an airline-booking service. So out of fairness, I feel I must admit this:

Google Hotel Finder is flat-out amazing.

While the tool has been around since last summer, it got a fresh injection of buzz this week with the announcement that you could now search for lodging based on proximity to landmarks. Bundled into this upgrade is the ability to map hotels based on travel time to the landmark, popular neighborhoods or your own customized boundaries within the city.

That might sound like a ho-hum set of features, but when put all together, they create a travel-planning experience that feels downright futuristic.

I decided to test Google Hotel Finder with a relatively low-interest landmark. Sure, it can find you great hotels near the Eiffel Tower, but what about San Francisco’s Coit Tower? Found in the Telegraph Hill neighborhood, the tower is a bit of a slog from the city’s most popular hotel districts, so it seemed like a good test.

Searching for the landmark by name quickly pulled up a map and the closest hotels, which I could sort by average rating, price, promotional discounts, class (three-star, etc.) or an intuitive ranking system called “magic.” I sorted by magic, in hopes I would find a place that was both reasonably priced and violently haunted.

Many users will probably stop there and start picking some good hotels, but it’s the mapping system that really makes Hotel Finder a treat. Clicking on the default neighborhood map lets you expand the search area or switch between three different types of maps: Select Area (which you customize), Travel Time or Popular Areas.

Here’s how these different options looked on my search:

Once you start digging into the information on each hotel, the process continues to be easy and downright fun. Reviews (from Google Places) and photos are displayed prominently, along with links to more reviews on other sites such as Trip Advisor.

You can add your hotels to a short list or go ahead and click “Book.” Then you’ll be shown the price to reserve your room through an advertiser like Orbitz or through the hotel’s official booking site. Being able to see the per-night price for each option is a nice touch.

Google has created what is probably the best hotel booking site of all time, and I am eager to see how they continue building on this platform to create an all-inclusive tool that will undoubtedly redefine how we plan travel in the 21st century.

David Griner is Director of Digital Content for Luckie and Company and contributing editor for Adweek’s blog, AdFreak.com. You can contact him by e-mail or follow @griner on Twitter.

Content moderation on the Web has become a hot-button topic recently, with the controversy surrounding the Stop Online Piracy Act, frequent distribution of illegal and stolen content, and cyberbullying on social networking sites. How much is too much moderation, and how much is too little? Although the amount of moderation is still up for debate, the recent failure of Frank Warren’s PostSecret app illustrates that thorough content moderation is essential.

On the cusp of the age of smartphones and blogging, Warren began a community art project in 2004, inviting strangers to mail him postcards declaring their deepest secrets, hopes and fears. The invitation read, “You are invited to anonymously contribute a secret to a group art project. Your secret can be a regret, fear, betrayal, desire, confession, or childhood humiliation. Reveal anything – as long as it is true and you have never shared it with anyone before. Be brief. Be legible. Be creative.” His only other stipulations regarding secret-submissions: no glitter and no blood. He acted as curator to the hundreds of thousands of submissions he received over the next seven years, sorting the postcards, posting a selection of them on the online blog PostSecret.com and eventually publishing five books filled with secrets.

In the fall of 2011, Warren decided to take his project mobile in the form of the PostSecret app, taking the same idea from the original secret exchange project and turning it into a crowd-powered virtual art project. The app kept the basic idea of Warren’s earlier project, but with the mobility of smartphones, users could tag general locations to posts and share interesting secrets on social sites – all with guaranteed anonymity.

After its initial launch, the app was hailed as a “heartfelt, loving application” that “raised the privacy bar” for developers and users. But just four short months later, malicious content “that was not just pornographic but also gruesome and at times threatening” began appearing on the app’s feed. The one element that seemed to make the PostSecret app innovative and engaging – the absolute anonymity guaranteed to users – would also prove to be its downfall.

Malicious communication on social networking sites may not be a new phenomenon, but it’s something that PostSecret’s volunteer moderators just couldn’t handle. During the months that it was active, the app received about 30,000 submissions a day. Even if only 1 percent of the content were malicious, that would still mean thousands of posts would be in violation of the apps’s guidelines.

Despite the uncertainty of the app’s future, Warren remains positive. He hopes to redesign the app with “the right architecture and oversight,” including giving users more control over flagging inappropriate content. Whatever the future holds for PostSecret, the demise of its application can serve as an example to developers and users everywhere of the consequences of little to no content moderation.

Kayla Cille Terry is a Digital Content intern at Luckie & Company. You can contact her by email or follow her on Twitter.

Photo credit: cali.org via Flickr

Digital

Bill Abel, VP/Director of Digital Development

“Marketers are going to figure out how to deal with large amounts of customer data and business intelligence. Big Data, as it is being called, will bring new technologies and services for tackling data problems across all industries. For marketers, this will mean better tools for collection and analysis, resulting in more data–driven strategy.

“Another thing to watch out for in 2012 will be Apple’s entry in to the consumer television market. Not only will they disrupt the consumer electronics industry, but the advertising industry, cable networks and the cable distribution companies. If Apple pulls it off, it may be the start of a media revolution. Already, companies like Netflix and Amazon have proven large numbers of consumers are willing to pay for streaming video content without advertising.

“Paid content may be on the rise, but will people really prefer to pay premiums for no advertising all the time, or is there going to be a mix of ad subsidized content? The industry has been trying to figure this one out since the late ’90s – don’t expect it to be worked out in the next 365 days.”

Strategy

Jay Waters, SVP/ Chief Strategy Officer

“There are four key factors that will shape 2012. They include:

• Unified multi-screen (television, mobile, online, cinema) approach to buying video advertising
• This will be the worst year yet for traditional newspapers
• More integration of ad content into editorial content
• More focus on using digital to deliver sponsored content and functionality, rather than pure advertising”

Social Media

David Griner, Director of Digital Content

“Facebook will finally extend brand options to mobile. So far, the best options for marketers on Facebook have been engaging applications and targeted ad campaigns. Unfortunately, neither has been optimized for mobile, and even Facebook’s recently upgraded mobile app excludes ads and apps. While there probably aren’t many users out there clamoring for ads, there is a lot of demand for contests, sweepstakes and other tab apps to work easily from a smartphone. The price to pay for that access will likely be mobile-friendly ad units. The first will almost certainly be Sponsored Stories, which are light ad units currently found on the sidebar of Facebook.com. The network already has announced plans to roll out Sponsored Stories into users’ news feeds, and Bloomberg reports that they’ll also start appearing for mobile Facebook users as well. Hopefully, apps won’t be far behind.

“It’ll be a do-or-die moment for Google+. The search giant’s Facebook competitor saw rapid initial growth in 2011, and some are predicting it could even reach 400 million users by the end of 2012. But a lot can happen between now and December ’12, and Google+ seems just as capable of auguring into obscurity as exploding in popularity. By shutting down a myriad of underused applications in 2011, Google showed that it’s done throwing good money after bad, so the first few months of 2012 will be extremely important. Google’s task is to prove that it has something great to offer other than being a solid alternative for Facebook haters. Outside of the ability to sort friends into Circles and the slick Hangouts video-chatting system — both of which were included at launch — Google+ simply has been slow to roll out any killer apps that crumble the foundation out from under Facebook. Hopefully, Google is investing in this level of forward-thinking R&D and not simply streamlining what’s already live. If Google gets serious about social media innovative, the momentum and its motivational effect on Facebook could be great for all of us.

“Pinterest will grow up. Few new social sites have exploded with the velocity of this addictive image-sharing service, but Pinterest still has some growing pains to work through. It remains in invite-only beta, which I’d wager won’t last long into 2012, but for now that simply helps create some aura of exclusivity. But once it goes live, will it have a revenue source? How would advertising or sponsored content work? For now, the site seems little interested in partnering with brands. A site rep recently told us they have no system to let brands secure their trademarked name as a Pinterest username and that they didn’t have any plans to create a system. That may fly for now, but long term, it’s going to chafe on major brands like Pepsi and Taco Bell, both of which have squatters on their Pinterest names.”

Edward Bowser is Community Manager at Luckie & Company. You can contact him by e-mail or follow @etbowser on Twitter.

This year, Starbucks has brought a little more than tradition to the table. This past holiday season, Starbucks released their first major augmented reality app that brings the characters on the red cups to life. “Cup Magic” is part of their “Let’s Merry” holiday campaign.

Augmented reality is all about growing our reality. We could all use a little more imagination and the up-and-coming AR trend is making that a bit easier. Coffee lovers simply scanned their cups, or one of 47 other items at a Starbucks location, with their iPhone or Android, and the phone’s screen brought a character to life. Animations featured five different characters: an ice skater, a fox, a squirrel, Christmas carolers, and a boy and his dog sledding. Collecting all five characters becomes a scavenger hunt of sorts, along with the app’s ability to share them as e-Cards with friends, to receive special offers, or to buy a Starbucks Card e-Gift.

When I decided to try out the app, I was with skeptical friends who did not think expect an amusing experience. While ordering, I let them experiment on their purchases. Suddenly, I heard screams and laughter. The same people who didn’t see the point of augmented reality were walking around scanning everything in sight, trying to play with different characters.

Since the app debuted November 15 it has earned an engagement rate of 91% and more than 450,000 visits. This goal is simply to motivate consumers to buy the various items in order to collect all five characters. The app provides clues on how to get all the characters and allows you to enter to win a currently unnamed prize.

Augmented reality is a burgeoning trend and businesses are still trying to figure out what approaches work best to engage consumers. Buick has been experimenting with this technique in order to boost holiday sales for their 2012 LaCrosse. This summer Krystal’s introduced an AR app that involved dancing penguins. Lego is also using AR kiosks in the toy aisle to show how what items will look like when built. What was once predicted to be a top tech trend did not see explosive growth this year, but with smartphone popularity expanding, augmented reality is sure to be a prominent part of marketing in the future.

About a year ago, Starbucks started the nation’s largest mobile payment program. Since the launch of that program there have been 26 million transactions. I think the success of this app gave Starbucks the motivation to merge their holiday spirit with the popularity of their Starbucks Card app for yet another holiday tradition. Starbucks has really gotten on board with integrating their business and marketing into our smartphone culture.

April Wilson is a New Business intern at Luckie & Company. You can contact her by email or follow her on Twitter.

Photo credit: Tristen.Pelton via Flickr

“What do you want to eat?”

“I don’t know, what do you want?”

Deciding where to eat – once one of the most dreaded conversations in many households – is a little bit easier in our world of constant connectivity. Choosing a restaurant has become just as calculated as making a major purchase, and people do their research – not only because they’re invested in the decision, but also just because they can.

Looking for coupons, hours or entertainment lineups? Check the restaurant’s Facebook page. Still can’t decide where to go? Guess what – there’s an app for that.

In a 2011 Harris Interactive poll, more than half of adults under 35 reported checking out more than two websites before patronizing a local business; 63 percent of them first go to Google.com and 24 percent check Facebook. A recent National Restaurant Association study suggests that adults who identify themselves as technologically connected and social media-savvy dine out more than other adults.

Still, not all restaurants are aboard the social media gravy train. But that doesn’t mean a Google search will come up empty.

In this day and age, a restaurant has an online presence whether it wants one or not, thanks to sites like Urbanspoon and Yelp, which serve up user-generated content like an all-you-can-eat buffet. While these sites offer seemingly unbiased customer reviews that can be of great use to consumers, they can also present misinformation and the review system can be abused.

A restaurant owner in Birmingham, Ala., recently experienced the effects of such abuse after making public his opinion about a highly controversial political issue. Online ratings and reviews suffered due to an alleged campaign to damage the eatery’s reputation, with ratings on Google going from a consistent four stars to one-and-a-half stars. (Many of the new negative reviews eventually tripped filters that alert the site to first-time reviewers, reviewers from geographic locations other than where the restaurant is located, and reviews that never mention an actual interaction with the business.)

Luckily, the restaurant owner has long been proactive when it comes to online interactions and managing social media. He “claimed” his business page on yelp.com, which allowed him to see when new reviews are posted and gave him the chance to respond. He also claimed the restaurant on urbanspoon.com, which gave him similar privileges.

But the restaurant’s saving grace was likely its active Facebook page, which is updated daily and sees frequent activity from its fans. They clamored to share their experiences on the review sites, bringing the restaurant’s Google rating back to four stars out of five.

Had the restaurant owner not taken charge of his business’s social media, the online conversation could have been heavily one-sided. And it seems other restaurateurs are realizing just what social media brings to the table.

The National Restaurant Association predicts that by 2013, at least three-fourths of all restaurants will be using Facebook, and more than half will make use of online review sites. Of restaurant operators surveyed by the association in 2010, 87 percent said the use of Facebook and other social media tools is important in their industry and agree it will only become more crucial in coming years.

Molly Folse is Digital Content Coordinator at Luckie & Company. You can contact her by email or follow her on Twitter.

Photo credit: Ann Althouse via Flickr