Publish your documents to the World

We all have documents and stories rotting on our hard drives that might not be of any interest to us but might be of valuable information or post for somebody. Scribd, is a web service that lets you publish and share your documents with others. Think of it like YouTube but with documents instead of videos.

When you upload a document using this service other members can view this document using their browser itself as this website uses a custom flash document viewer. You can view documents related to history, blogging, stories, jokes and all kind of reading material through this site. For the bloggers, you can also embed these documents into your blog which is certainly a nice feature.

Some examples of documents that you can publish and read are, school papers, poems, news, stories, online books and so on. Go ahead try this website, if you are somebody who likes to read and find information this site will be worth your visit.www.scribd.com

Wow, That's a Cool Google Map

We just added in the ability to search our map for landmarks. The cool thing about landmarks is that they're usually pretty big, and recognizable by satellite. Let's take this example:

If you go to www.iloho.com/landmarks and search for "eiffel tower", here's what you'll get...

You can also search by city or country.

GlobalMotion launches travel site

GlobalMotion Inc. on Tuesday launched GlobalMotion.com, a wiki-based platform for people to talk about interesting places.

Palo Alto-based GlobalMotion, which is privately held, said the site allows users to post and edit information, pictures, Web links and other content.

The company, which was founded in 2006, said it encourages users to post about historic landmarks, recreation areas to commercial buildings or even great parking spots.

On the site so far are such eclectic entries as the world's southernmost city, carpool parking in Palo Alto, and a statue of Yoda in San Francisco.

Airline Reviews Search Improvements Released Today

On the last post, we talked about how we released the airline reviews upgrade. Now we've fully enabled the search so that you can search any combination of the following and it will bring you results: Destination Airport, Arrival Airport, and/or Airline.

Ok, this may seem obvious, but we were in a bit of a rush. We've also increased the number of flights to search to over 55,000. Soon we hope to have the most comprehensive database of flight data available on the net.

Airline Reviews is Up for an Upgrade

Over the past couple of weeks, we've set our interns on a quest to retrieve data for about 38,000 international flights. We're working on a structure to get really in depth data on all flights and allow our users to compare this information.

We've got a lot of work to do on this section, but we decided to release it anyway and let people try it and help us improve it. You can see it on our site now. It's a work in progress, but here's an image of what it should look like

Bookmark to iloho Button Available

Promote your site by adding an iloho bookmarking button to your articles.
Step 1: Copy and Paste the following code to wherever you'd like the button to go. (Most people add the button to the bottom of their story).

<script type="text/javascript">
iloho_url = "YOUR.LINKURL.HERE"; /* REPLACE WITH YOUR LINK URL. Default is the url of the current page */
iloho_title = "TITLE"; /* REPLACE WITH THE TITLE OF YOUR ARTICLE. Default is the html-title of the current page */
iloho_icon = "big"; /* OPTIONS: BIG | SMALL | TEXT . default is the big one */
</script>
<script src="http://www.iloho.com/tools/iloho_it.js" type="text/javascript"></script>


Step 2: Define the page that you would like the link on iloho.com to point to.
For example, if you've written a story, and that story is located at http://www.mysite.com/my-story, the code will look like this:

<script type="text/javascript">
iloho_url = "http://www.mysite.com/my-story";
</script>

Step 3 (optional): Give a default title to display on iloho.com.
For example, if you're story's title is "My Story", add this to your code:

<script type="text/javascript">
iloho_url = "http://www.mysite.com/my-story";
iloho_title = "My Story";
</script>

Step 4 (optional): Choose the type of button you'd like to display on your site.
iloho offers three different styles of button links:

Style 1 (default): [image]
<script type="text/javascript">
iloho_url = "http://www.mysite.com/my-story";
iloho_title = "My Story";
iloho_icon = "big";
</script>

Style 2: [image]
<script type="text/javascript">
iloho_url = "http://www.mysite.com/my-story";
iloho_title = "My Story";
iloho_icon = "small";
</script>
Style 3: [image]

<script type="text/javascript">
iloho_url = "http://www.mysite.com/my-story";
iloho_title = "My Story";
iloho_icon = "text";
</script>

iloho Travel Contest - Only 2 Weeks Left

These next two weeks, we'll be winding down the iloho contest, it ends on the 31st of this month. We still have a ton of unclaimed prizes. Here's the lowdown on what can be grabbed right now with practically no effort whatsoever:

1. A round trip ticket between Tokyo or Osaka and Hong Kong. That means you can fly either way. If you live in one of those cities, all you have to do is post an itinerary with Japan as the theme.
   What's an itinerary and how do I post it?
   First off, you register for iloho with a valid email address. Once you've registered and logged in, you navigate to the itineraries section and click "Create Itinerary". Now you just enter in a description of a trip (real or imagined). Enter some cities in Japan and write about your experience there OR just make up some trip that you would like to take.
2. At least 5000 miles on your airline of choice. That's like a quarter of a ticket anywhere domestically, and to win that you can just post a popular travel advice article.
   Does this mean I have to spend 5 hours writing a good article? Absolutely not, all you need to do is find a good article on the net and post the link to the article on iloho. The extent of the writing skills that you'll need are creating a decent title and a short description for a grand total of several minutes. If the article is voted to popular, which at this point means 15 votes for it, you'll win! No questions asked.
3. Cash, yes Moolah, Dough, or my personal favorite, Lootcakes...Up to $1000. If you have more than 15 friends, you're in contention. The cash goes out to the group with the most members in their group.
   Where do I sign up and what exactly do I do? Just register with iloho with your email address, create a group, shoot an email to your friends, telling them to join your group (they can register free accounts too). Right now, 21 people gets you the grand prize, but even you can win $500 too. I bet you could have a hell of a party...
4. A 1gig USB Key and iPod Speakers, why not if we're just giving them away? We're giving away 100, but we only have 64 people that have actually won anything.
   At this point if you post a link to an article you will win. I think that's all I need to say.
5. Come on everyone can use a T-shirt and a travel pillow... We have a thousand, but again, only 64 articles have been posted, so plenty to give away.

I must stress the following points:

1. No, we won't sell, giveaway, or spam your email address. We do have a newsletter, but you can opt out.
2. You don't have to pay for shipping, we've got it covered.
3. How do you get your prizes when you win?
   If you win, we'll notify you by email directing you to a secure server at iloho.com. If you have any questions about the security of this event, please feel free to email me at info@iloho.com. We'll never give out your address information or use it for any other purpose.
   

We Released Landmarks ahead of Schedule

Ok, that never happens from what I hear. I don't know how the dev team pulled it off, but we actually released a new feature ahead of schedule.

Check it out at www.iloho.com/landmarks

One of Our Favorite Posts - This Island is For Sale

We'd love to buy this and make it the official iloho island.
http://www.iloho.com/posts/244-Blue-Lagoon-Island-FOR-SALE-on-EBay

New Homepage Look

Last week we updated the homepage. We wanted to add a little more excitement to it:

1. Introduction Update - we thought it was a little too static, so we added some more color to it and a countdown to our beta 0.3. One of the cool things about us is that we'll constantly be releasing improvements to iloho so we wanted to show that off.
   
2. Contest Flash - The contest didn't stand out enough so we changed some of the typography in the contest flash, no biggy, but we hope people can now see it.
3. Contest Standings - We'll update these every week. We wanted people to know if they're going to win or not, so hopefully, this will attract visitors who want to win. Check it out every week to see the standings!
4. Top Posts - we changed this whole concept, we used to have the top groups and top itineraries on the right so people could see what's going on with the rest of the site, but we felt that this might be unnecessary, because people usually navigate to where they want to go. Here we changed the top posts to top all-time posts and we gave the articles a score instead of a static one to five count.

Here's the old homepage:

What we've been up to at iloho

It seems that we've been neglecting the blog here. We've been quite busy with getting iloho launched and we'd love for anyone that stumbles upon this blog to visit our site (www.iloho.com). Of course, we always want to hear feedback from people, good or bad (info@iloho.com).

That being said, we've spent some time before the launch designing a cool travel contest that runs till the end of August. Check out what you can win at http://www.iloho.com/static/contest.

After we launched on the 18th, the team has been busy with bug fixes, plus minor usability and cosmetic changes.

Three things happened right near launch day that were huge issues.

1. No one had a clue how to use the site so we had to add in a whole header explaining the site. Something we had planned for, but got lost in the commotion of launch.
2. We had a big issue with hotmail users not getting our emails, the emails didn't even go into a spam folder. We had to turn off verification for hotmail users.
3. We redesigned the entire itinerary section. It was a several step process that could be saved as draft, and although the draft idea was and is a good one which we still hope to implement, the UI was far too clunky to use, so we dropped it for a single page submission.
   

Since then, we've just been correcting small bugs, plus adding little visual things, my favorite was our new "lickable" search box. This week we're starting to move beyond bug fixes and add new features, which we will be doing constantly so stay tuned!

iloho.com Launched

Last night we launched our website: www.iloho.com
Sorry we haven't posted anything recently, but we've been busy trying to get the site fully functional.

So what can travelers do at iloho.com?

Create, vote for, and discuss the best and latest travel news.


Plan, vote for, and discuss your favorite trips.


Create or join a group of travelers with similar interests. Discuss issues or plan trips.


What's it like to fly a particular airline? Find out here or share your own experiences.

A night to remember -- The Atlantis Bridge Suite

If you want a royal honeymoon suite and are ready to spend lavishly,then your search will come to an end with the at the 600 acre Atlantis resort in the Bahamas. The opulent suite presents you with the views of the entire resort and maina and provides you with matchless luxurious amenities including a bar lounge, piano, 2 entertainment centers, kitchen and balcony. The most expensive ten room suite is decorated in lots of gold with the master bedroom being spectacularly decorated. The guest list includes Bill Gates, Michael Jordan and Oprah Winfrey. The price of spending a single night in this heavenly suite is $25,000. So, honeymoon in Atlantis Bridge Suite will definitely be the best honeymoon one could ever ask for!

The Atlantis Bridge Suite -- A night to remember

SunBrite to Unveil 46-inch All-Weather Outdoor LCD

If you are more of an outdoor person then you don’t need to settle for an outdoor TV that is any less then what you have got indoors, at least if it’s less then 50-inch! The outdoor TV sets are getting bigger by the time. The best is coming! SunBriteTV is introducing a 46-INCH HD ALL-WEATHER OUTDOOR LCD at InfoComm, June 15-17, in Anaheim, California.

The all-weather enclosure is designed to withstand all outdoor hazards including dirt, rain, insects and scratches. The dual air flow system keeps unit cool and dry in temperatures up to 122 degrees F and the internal thermostatically-controlled heater activates automatically when the TV’s internal temperature dips to 32º F. In cold, the heater provides a 20º F. temperature rise, allowing the TV to safely remain outdoors in temperatures as low as -24º F. The TV will feature a resolution of 1366 x 768 pixels with 1600:1 contrast ratio. SunBrite’s watertight cable entry system and cable pass-through design ensures quick and easy hook-up to the wide selection of video inputs, including HDMI, component, VGA, S-video, composite and RF.

In Pictures: Top Summer Adventure Travel Spots

Wanna go out somewhere for summer? Forbes has recently published world's top summer adventure travel spots. Swimming with a dolphin or sailing the Virgin Island.. What a nice summer!




Forbes Top Summer Adventure Travel Spots In Pictures

travel in Peru

Wanna have a visual tour in Peru? check out this site and customize your travel

Forbes Does a Bang Up Job with Luxury Travel

I've been surfing around a bit lately and have been quite impressed with the topics that Forbes chooses to cover. Each one of these headlines is noteworthy in it's own right. These are some highlights that I've picked out:

1. Most Expensive Cruises 2006
2. The World's Most Expensive Hotel Rooms
3. High-Tech Hotels For Business Travelers
4. Most Romantic Places To Pop The Question
5. Status-Symbol Trips

The Big H is Coming! -Honda FCX 2008

Honda announced recently that it will begin producing a limited number of FCX fuel cell vehicles to selected customers in 2008. We should be pleased to know that environmental-friendly automobile are not decades away as some of the experts predicted.

Take a trip with this new Honda! Save the environment while having fun!

Meet your clothes at the hotel

Don't overlook the time you spent in waiting for your luggages! Mr. Grenville, the chief executive of the Sterling Valuation Group, recently developed a luggage shifting service to shift travellers' bags directly to their hotels, which may saves you up to 60 to 90 minutes on each flight. Think about what that means to a traveller!
further info about the service

Caribbean Travel

Summer's already here, are u thinking of go to somewhere to soak up the sun and have some fun? Then Caribbean is one of the places that you should consider. 32 destinations in Caribbean is only a click away, see which one works better than you!