We may be the last blog to post this video about the current state of Web 2.0 but better be last than not post this important document at all.

And I do not know why so many are complaining that it is not funny or the lyrics don’t rhyme - go and make a better video! We promise to post it here!

Comscore published a new report which highlights again what most of us already know: positive reviews from consumers are very, very good for business. That is because consumers are willing to pay more for products recommended by peers. People are most influenced for hotels, travel products and restaurants and they are willing to pay 20% and more for an excellent service or product.

That is pretty powerful stuff. Image an airline being able to achieve 20% higher yields or a hotel being able to get a 20% higher RevPAR for offering consistently superior service. And yet when I look at ads or booking engines it is all about price, price, price ….

The PhocusWright session about blogging in the tourism industry was a good reminder to be more diligent about this blog. So from now on we will try to blog on a weekly, or - even better - daily basis.

One of the biggest news - at least in my eyes - at PhocusWright was the announcement by the CEO of American Express Travel that Amex would roll out a social networking site for corporate travel soon.

Here are some excerpts of what he had to say:

“Imagine the power of the wealth of expertise of our 14,000 travel counselors around the world, our 1,000 sales client managers and consulting experts … and employees of 20,000 corporate customers around the world that the new technology would allow us to harness in. What we will see soon emerging is the advent of consumer-like behavior in the managed corporate travel world … the end user being more informed, more information-equipped and hence being more global.”

“For example, our dynamic traveler marketing concept, which we plan to launch in 2008, is a pure social software technology-based solution,” he added. “Social software technology platforms will be more and more used to accelerate the base of new product development by incorporating more
strategic partners and customers into the [research and development] process. This will be further accelerated with the 2.0 concept.”

Now that even Amex is getting onto the social networking bandwagon, does anybody still not believe that social networking in travel will go corporate soon?

But how disappointing was the roll-out of another Amex social networking site a couple of days later. Membersknow.com allows Amex card members to share travel related information. However for a site built in 2007 it lacks a lot of features. If you are info user-generated-content, web 2.0 and social networking, read the terms and conditions for the program. Talk about being restrictive …

Although the sheer number Amex card holder will bring a lot of traffic to the site I doubt it will create real stickiness. But at least one big consumer brand is getting it and is starting to utilize (and maybe also monetize) all these consumer relations in a new way.