People Search Digest

Do you need to plan a vacation? Or maybe you’ve been debating taking one, but need the extra push. Kango, an “almost alpha” personalized travel site, could be just the reason you’ve been looking for. Whether it’s a romantic getaway or a family trip, Kango has you covered.

Until now, Kango has been flying (or jumping?) under the radar. Travelers hardly need another travel site to choose from, as there are already so many out there. What’s great though is Kango not only recognizes this fact, but even echoes this sentiment - going so far as to admit to site visitors that if you already know exactly what you want to book, then sites like Expedia and Orbit would probably be better suited for you. Or, if you have a range of options, but are searching for the lowest prices then you will want to try FareCast or SideStep. However, if you want options upon options then Kango is your one-stop-shop. It brings together more than a thousand sites, 400,000 lodgings, activity destinations, and 18 million reviews, ratings and blogs from all over the web so you can find everything you need in one place.

Kango adds another new twist as it derives its travel search results based on what type of trip you want to take. They manage this via their “semantic search engine,” which focuses narrowly on travel. It parses the language in all online reviews and guides and categorizes them by generating tags. This way, hotels that have been reviewed with words like, “perfect, relaxing, couples, or honeymoon” rank higher in a search for romantic travel, while hotels associated with the words, “kitchen, pool, and kids,” rank high in a search for family trips.

Whether this new approach to travel search will draw customers away from their trusted sites is still unknown, as the site is barely in beta. However, they do offer a different approach to travel search, which expands people’s options. Traveling is time and money invested, so it’s important to choose the right site to help you plan your next trip.