PlanetEye Launches First One-Stop Destination for Travel Planning Needs

Business Wire, July 10, 2008

Unveils Partnership with Travelocity; Leverages Microsoft Technology

TORONTO -- PlanetEye Inc. today launched an innovative online travel planning service that puts an end to the frustrating and time-consuming process that people experience when using the Web to plan a trip.

Until today, researching, organizing, and booking travel on the Web involved visiting dozens of Web sites and sifting through hundreds of search results. Those days are now officially over.

PlanetEye.com is a one-stop destination for all your travel planning needs. It features a powerful and easy-to-use planning tool, compelling photography and leading edge mapping technology. PlanetEye also has extensive travel content from a team of in-house writers and a growing number of professional sources.

"We want to make travel planning easy. We want to inspire travellers to explore and discover the world, and then help them book their trips - everything from flights, restaurants, hotels and attractions," said Butch Langlois, PlanetEye's president and chief executive.

Rob Enderle, principal analyst with the Enderle Group, says "PlanetEye pulls together advanced social networking elements, contextual mapping, and professional travel information to create the most advanced travel planning tool I have ever seen. If you are planning a trip or simply want to imagine one, PlanetEye is the first place you should go."

At the core of PlanetEye's travel planning service is the Travel Pack that lets travellers "clip" the interesting photographs, attractions, hotels and restaurants discovered on PlanetEye when they are planning a trip or simply putting together travel ideas. PlanetEye members can look at their Travel Packs as a list or on a personalized map.

"The Travel Pack is a valuable and useful tool if you're looking to travel tomorrow, next week or next year," Langlois said. "As you add items to Travel Pack, it starts to reflect your interests and aspirations. Being able to visualize your travel pack on a map lets you understand their relative locations within a destination and add new trip items that make sense according to your interests or the length of your stay."

It's easy to introduce local flavor into your Travel Pack by adding PlanetEye's top-rated selections on where to stay, what to do and where to eat. As well, PlanetEye provides valuable editorial content from a list of "Trusted Sources" to enhance the planning process.

Once you've created your Travel Pack, you can book your flight and hotel and car rentals right from your Travel Pack through Travelocity.com, which recently entered into an affiliate agreement with PlanetEye.

"Having a dynamic partner such as Travelocity will play an important role in PlanetEye meeting the needs of travelers - whether it's booking a flight, a hotel or a rental car," Langlois said. "We're really excited to have Travelocity on board."

On PlanetEye, you can also make restaurant reservations (OpenTable), buy tickets to events and attractions (StubHub), and even book a spa appointment (WaySpa).

After a PlanetEye member returns from travelling, they can upload photographs to their Travel Packs, rate the places where they stayed, dined and toured, and then share their Travel Pack with friends, family and other travellers.

A key part of PlanetEye's technology comes from a Microsoft research project: World Wide Media eXchange (WWMX). Microsoft contributed the technology to PlanetEye as part of their IP Ventures group. This was the first time that Microsoft research technology has been commercialized through a third-party partner in Canada.

"We are very excited about this collaboration and the way that PlanetEye is taking the cutting edge technology developed at Microsoft Research and applying it to the online travel experience," said Bob Tenczar, director of marketing for the Intellectual Property Licensing Division at Microsoft.

About PlanetEye

PlanetEye is an online travel planning service for travellers looking to easily and quickly research, organize, share and book their trips.

Featuring more than 70,000 beautiful, geotagged photographs, leading edge mapping technology, and extensive travel content, PlanetEye is designed for travelers who want explore where to go and what to do.

With in-house writers at your disposal and a growing amount of professional content, we provide valuable information so you can make smart travel-planning decisions.

PlanetEye's investors include J.L Albright Venture Partners, GrowthWorks and Microsoft Corp.