Can you tell I’m about to complain about Google again? Yes here it comes. Matt Cutts, are you listening?

The infinite SEO-PPC loop

I did a Google search for “things to do in Rome” and noticed the #1 natural result was for TripAdvisor. Fair enough, they’re a massive site with many pages of content. They tend to rank well for many searches. Nothing strange about this.

Then I looked at Google’s description of the TripAdvisor page. Sometimes Google displays the page’s meta description. Sometimes Google displays random content from the page, especially if the page content is more relevant to the search query.

My Google search for "things to do in Rome"

In this case I was surprised - to say the least - to see our own website (Viator.com) listed in the page description. Now Viator and TripAdvisor are erstwhile competitors. I would never expect us to have any content on the TripAdvisor page to Rome. So how did that content get there?

Click over and behold! TripAdvisor is publishing Google PPC ads on its Rome page (nothing wrong with that), and Viator.com is paying for a Google PPC ad about things to do in Rome (nothing wrong with that).

So what’s my problem? Well, here’s the thing - Google is essentially using the advertisement Viator has paid for (including the ad copy we wrote, highly targeted to Rome) as part of the scrape of content on this TripAdvisor page.

The Viator PPC ad, which Google is displaying in its natural search results

Think about it - TripAdvisor is winning in 2 ways. First of all, they’re making money from Viator and other advertisers whenever people click on the ads. Fair enough, that’s what ads are for. However TripAdvisor is also getting an SEO boost from Viator (and other advertisers which are listed in the page description). The ad we created is being included in Google’s scrape of the page content, and Google is giving credit to TripAdvisor for having such fantastically taregted content (which Viator created!!) on its page. Annoying.

We write a targeted ad about something. And Google displays that content in the natural results snippet for a competitive website, presumably also giving that website an SEO boost for having our keywords on its page.

That ain’t right!

It means that Google is allowing publishers of its PPC ads to benefit from the ad copy they publish, which is provided by its paying advertisers. This is not how it’s meant to work. Google should not be using AdSense PPC ad copy to influence its own natural search results.

Let me put that more plainly - Google (the search engine) should know better than to use Google (the advertiser) as a factor in its search results. It’s the kind of thing Google would consider spammy and dangerous if another advertiser was doing it. So how come Google gets away with it? Google might say the ad content is not being factored into the SEO rankings, but is only being displayed because the ad content is so clearly relevant to the search query.

But that’s a bogus argument. First of all, PPC ad copy should not be relevant for a natural search query, period, full stop. Second, if that PPC copy is being displayed as part of the natural search results, everybody and their mother will assume some relationship between the page and the snippet.

And there should be no - zero, none! - relationship here. At best, Google is just being sloppy about what content to show in its natural results. At worst, Google is allowing TripAdvisor to channel natural search users to a page where the most relevant content is - lo and behold! - a Google PPC ad, in the hopes users will click on it (thereby making money for both the advertiser and Google).

So Google, which is it?

If you know of other examples like this, let me know. I’m curious what - if anything - Google will do about this.

-Scott McNeely

Post script: Since this was posted, we’ve had an anonymous tipster explain what’s really happening. Alex Bainbridge also wrote a useful blog post about this. It seems this is a TripAdvisor SEO tactic — they’re using the AdSense API to grab targeted ad copy and then embed that (highly optimized) text in the html of the page. This is then crawled by Googlebot, which ’sees’ the ad copy as part of the page content. Clever. But wrong. And TripAdvisor ought to be punished.

Maybe not, you say, if this practice is not outlawed by the Google AdSense terms & conditions. Well, I’m not bothering to check. Because whether or not it is outlawed, it should be outlawed. And more to the point, Google should simply stop displaying PPC snippets as part of its natural search results. Google, how can you possibly defend this SEO tactic? It’s spammy, pure and simple, and you should not use your own PPC ad copy to influence your natural search results.

Google - just imagine if every single AdSense publisher on the planet used this same tactic. It would quickly make a laughing-stock of your natural search results.

PSS: Kelly posted an excellent article on this over at Search Engine Land, absolutely worth reading.

If Tony Wheeler didn’t exist, we’d need to invent him. You’ll know Tony if you’ve ever hauled a backpack around the globe with only a fuzzy itinerary (Asia?? why not!) and a money belt stuffed full with everything except money. Along with shoes and toothbrush, the only other required piece of gear was the guidebook.

Inevitably it was a Lonely Planet guidebook.

Tony Wheeler is the co-founder of Lonely Planet (along with his wife, Maureen). Which makes Tony the godfather, granddaddy and don of travel. This is a man who’s set foot in nearly every country on the planet (Iraq? Check. North Korea? Check. East Timor? Check.) This is a man who knows travel.

Tony Wheeler in Afghanistan, at Christ-e-Sharif

His story is legendary. After arriving in Sydney in 1972, after a six month Asia overland trip from Europe, he had 27 cents left in his pockets. After numerous friends asked him for advice on making the same journey, he decided to publish a book. In 1973 Lonely Planet’s first title was published, Across Asia on the Cheap, documenting their trip from London to Australia. In 1975 they published their second title, South-East Asia on a Shoestring.

From those early guidebooks Lonely Planet grew into the world’s largest independent guidebook publisher - more than 500 titles in print, an award-winning website, a respected image library, television programming and video, more than 400 staff in Melbourne, London and Oakland (California). In 2007 the Wheelers sold a majority interest in Lonely Planet to BBC Worldwide, the commercial arm of the venerable BBC. Tony is still closely involved with the company. In 2009 he hit the road to film segments in Laos and Alaska with a crew from Lonely Planet TV.

Death of the guidebook? Premature

Viator: Is the guidebook dead? Or are reports of its death premature?

Tony Wheeler: The death of print is the wrong way to think of it. Print is everywhere. There are more words being published on paper than ever before. What’s changing is the guidebook - it’s not going to stay on paper for ever. It’s migrating to mobile phones, downloads (have a look at Lonely Planet’s pick-and-mix PDF downloads) and, of course, the internet. So the guidebook is definitely not dead.

Viator: So if the guidebook isn’t quite dead, what is the role of a printed guidebook in 2009?

Tony Wheeler: Think about a destination like Congo and Zaire and - the guidebook itself may be a little outdated - but the maps are helpful. And overall, there are not many guidebooks to Congo, so in that case a guidebook is invaluable.

Another example: Our Cycling in Italy title, it went out of print a few years ago. Now it’s being sold on ebay for $150 a copy. The reason? It’s the perfect format for cycling. You’re not going to duck into an internet cafe while you’re on a long-haul cycling trip. And it’s the same thing when you’re traveling off the grid. Guidebooks are wonderful back-ups. People have been predicting the death of guidebooks for many years, they’re wrong. People love books.

Tony in Iraq

Viator: Travel experts versus group wisdom - is the role of an official “author” still crucial? Or has user-generated content taken over?

Tony Wheeler: Even Zagat’s (which relies on user-submitted reviews) requires experts to pull everything together. Lonely Planet’s own Thorn Tree is another good example. There’s great depth of content on the Thorn Tree - right now a traveler is on the spot in Congo, in Libya, in Tibet, posting to the Thorn Tree - but still there are gaps.

Even if 500 people on TripAdvisor endorse something, it doesn’t mean that the quality hasn’t suffered recently. And that’s where guidebook authors come in. And then there’s Iraq and Afghanistan - only Lonely Planet is sending people there right now.

Viator: What surprises you nowadays about travel, in the way that people travel?

Tony Wheeler: Frankly I’m surprised that people show up in the oddest of places. I took a 4×4 to the most remote corner of Africa, and yet there was a couple traveling the same route by bicycle. Amazing. It’s hard to push the edges of travel now, especially in Europe. I’m also surprised how easy it is to travel now. People in the UK heading to Prague for the weekend, that sort of thing. Travel has maybe become too easy.

Viator:What’s on your travel agenda this year?

Tony Wheeler: I wrote a book called Badlands, about traveling to the so-called Axis of Evil (Iraq, North Korea, Iran). I credit the book to George W. Bush. I’ve always been interested in edgy countries and I’d been kicking around the idea of writing something about ‘pariah’ countries. When Mr. Bush produced his ‘Axis of Evil’ list, my first thought was “I’ve got to go there.” So the Evil Axis trio formed the core of my ‘Bad Lands’ and it was no trouble to come up with a half dozen other contenders.

Perhaps surprisingly, I had a great time in all my ‘Bad Lands’ and – apart from a little uneasiness in Afghanistan and Iraq – I was never particularly concerned for my safety. North Korea was easily the weirdest: a place alternating between horror and comedy, a Stalinist theme park, a gulag run by Monty Python.

I’d like to follow that up with a book about “Weird Lands”, countries that have fallen off the rails somehow. Think about Congo - it’s gone steadily backwards since 1958. Or Colombia, which has been ruined by America’s fight against drugs. Somalia, Haiti, there are many off-the-rail countries to choose from.

Viator: Would you share a few of your favorite travel experiences with us?

Tony Wheeler: Last year I visited the cosmonaut training center at Star City outside Moscow, then flew down to the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. I had a close-up look at the Soyuz FG launcher the evening before the launch, met with Richard Garriott (game entrepreneur who paid USD $30 million for the ride) and his back up Nik Halick (they were behind glass, in quarantine) and stood at dawn to see the Soyuz crew (followed by an assortment of support crew which even included an orthodox priest). As interesting as the rocket launch was my fellow passengers – our little group of Richard Garriott supporters included Sergey Brin and Larry Page of Google, Peter Diamandis of the X Prize, Charles Simonyi, formerly of Microsoft and a 2007 space tourist, and assorted other space tourism followers.

Walking to the Soyuz bus, just before launch

I also have the Planet Wheeler Foundation to keep me busy. Our 2008 projects ranged from building a children’s clinic in Cambodia to funding medical training in Afghanistan. My favorite project in 2008 was the Melbourne Solar System. It’s a 1:1 billion scale model of our Solar System, starting with the Sun – a 1.4 metre diameter bronze orb that weighs 350kg (over 700 lbs). It’s on the waterfront bicycle path that runs along Melbourne’s bayside, starting at the St Kilda Marina. Jump on your bicycle and pedal west, you’ll come to Mercury in just 58 metres, Venus in 108 metres, the Earth (and our moon) in just 150 metres.

Cycling past Jupiter in Melbourne

The reality of course is that Earth is 150 million km from the Sun. After Mars the distances start to stretch. You’ll have pedaled 2.9 km from the Sun before you come to Uranus, at that one to one billion scale the reality is 2,900 million km. Keep going and you’ll have ridden out of St Kilda, past Middle Park and Albert Park and finally, the other side of Port Melbourne, you’ll come to tiny Pluto, 5.9 km from your solar starting point.

-Scott McNeely

Viator's founder with his contraband surfboard

A wave of protest. That’s what British Airways (BA) provoked this week when it announced — with no warning — that starting November 6, 2007, it no longer transports “unsuitable” items on its fleet of aircraft.

The list includes canoes, hang gliders, pole-vaulting poles, javelins (!) and, yes, surfboards.

Surfboards??? Dude, what is BA thinking?

While the global community of javelin throwers is tiny, surfers number in the thousands. And they are not happy. A spokesperson for the British Surfing Association (BSA) said she was “extremely shocked” by the decision, especially as some boards weigh much less than many items not included in the ban. “We’d find it extremely hard to believe that the average short board would be more difficult to handle when compared to a double bass and a full bag of golf clubs.”

And there’s the rub. BA’s new policy applies to surfboards and javelins, but not to bulky items such as golf clubs, bicycles and over-size musical instruments. Which looks to some like an arbitrary policy that unfairly punishes surfers (economy class, who cares) but not golfers (business class, don’t mess with them).

BA’s response? “Some items are simply not suitable for airport baggage systems to handle or travel in the aircraft hold.” They have no plans to review the new policy.

That’s not stopping the British Surfing Association from launching an online petition against the ban. The BSA complains that Britain’s surfing teams usually travel to their European and international events on BA flights but now will be forced to use other airlines. And think of all those unlucky British surfers who live in cities where BA is the primary carrier. Akaw, surfer dudes and betties, this doke ban was put together by a bunch of butt crumbs. Let’s hope they come to their senses.

-Scott McNeely

CheapOair - 300 million airfares and then some

Editor’s note: We were looking for some cheap airfares recently and came across the travel website CheapOair.com, which specializes in cheap airfares. We were intrigued, so we sent them some questions. Erin McBride, their Director of Social Marketing, was kind enough to reply.

Q: In a nutshell, what is CheapOair? How is it different from all the other airfare sites out there?

A: Casually speaking, CheapOair is an online travel discount retailer. We offer over 300 million airfares, all with a low airfare guarantee. We also sell hotel rooms and rental cars. We also just recently began offering train fares as well. We’re the #7 rated travel website according to Hitwise.com. And we have  the technological foundation to deliver affordable tickets to every region in the world.

Q: 300 million airfares? Wow, that’s a lot. We’ve also noticed that, unlike some of the other air sites, you have great deals for off-the-beaten and far-flung path destinations such as India and the Philippines, as well as round-the-world tickets and tickets for students, seniors, etc. Where did you get all of these cheap airfares?

A: We negotiate fares with over 300 airlines, so we have an excellent selection of tickets for all types of travelers no matter where they’re going

Q: Who knew there were even 300 airlines in the world. So is there any cost to travelers for using your site?

A: Absolutely not. CheapOair is free to use. And in fact, we do not require memberships or subscriptions to use the site.

Q: What’s your most popular travel destination this week?

A: Orlando, Los Angeles, and Las Vegas - in that order. This is typical of most weeks. All three are major convention cities, as well as holiday destinations. Additionally, what Los Angeles lacks in vacation travel, it makes up for by being a major hub as a gateway to the Pacific.

Q: Do you think the “CheapO” model could be applied to other areas besides travel?

A: Selling travel products online requires a rather sophisticated search engine technology that is unique to the travel industry. Typically, offering and an airline ticket online from one city to another will search a myriad of airfare and routing options that are optimized to show best priced tickets. In addition, travel products such as airline tickets, hotel and car rental rates are dynamically priced and are subject to yield management objectives by the various providers. In other words, an airline ticket for the same routing and flight itinerary from A to B may have a price today that is different from a price two days later.

Q: Do you have easyjet-style aspirations to move into other areas?

A: No. We’re pretty focused on travel. We’d like to keep it that way.

-Viator Travel Team

It’s 6:05am in Sydney and I slowly open my eyes to see a bright orange glow around the window blinds. It’s eerie – like a scene from Close Encounters of the Third Kind. I open the blind and am greeted by a magical orange world. It’s like a Fanta fog has descended on the neighbourhood.

The dust storm in Sydney. End of the world? Likely.

I grab my camera and super-wide lens assuming it’s a sunrise phenomena and run outside in my undies and T-shirt to try and capture the moment. Snap, snap around the yard, catch the trees, the porch, the cars. I figure that it will be gone in a couple minutes or less.

This ain’t no sunrise

Sydney dust storm - this ain't no sunrise

As I get showered and dressed I realise from the continued orange glow this ain’t no sunrise. It just seems to be consistent, no lighter, no darker just orange…

Cool! Maybe it will last until I get to the Harbour bridge – let’s pack the camera on the passenger seat and see what happens. As I’m driving along snapping shots out the window of this weird new world, I can’t believe it doesn’t fade away.

Oh man! Look at those cavemen go

Over the bridge (can’t even see the city from there), into town, grab some more surreal shots. At the office it’s real weird with the lights off and this Mars glow in every window. A couple snaps to highlight the difference between the cold white indoor lights and the sickly warm tones outside.

The orange buildings and streets viewed from the window are deadly quiet, only interrupted by the sirens as fire trucks rush to false alarms set off by the dust storm.

Apparently half of NSW was engulfed in dust this morning. Never seen in living memory. Now it’s 2pm with the sun shining and blue skies once again in this land of endless wonder.

-Jeff Lewis

More photos:

Driving over the Sydney Harbour bridge

The view from inside Viator’s Sydney office:

Viator's Sydney office inside. Apocalypse outside.

First up, two birthdays were celebrated this week. Su Lin (meaning ‘a little bit of something very cute’ in Chinese) celebrated her fourth birthday on Monday with a massive two-tiered “cake” made of ice, carrots, bamboo and apples. And yes of course, it was topped with a giant 4.

The other birthday was for Zhen Zhen (meaning ‘precious’), who celebrated her second birthday with a smaller cake, also made of ice and goodies. What to give a panda who’s well taken care of by zoo staff? Both pandas received birthday gift boxes full of biscuits made especially for pandas.

Happy 4th birthday, Su Lin!

It’s a… stick of butter?

The biggest news to come out of San Diego Zoo this week is that momma panda Bai Yun (meaning ‘white cloud’) gave birth to her fifth panda cub! This happened just before 5am on Wednesday, August 5. The baby cub, who they initially believe to be a boy, is about the size of a stick of butter and weighs in at approximately 4 ounces.

The new cub (top of photo) with mamma

In addition to her two cubs currently at the San Diego zoo, Bai Yun is also mother to Hua Mei (the first panda born in the Western Hemisphere since 1990) and Mei Sheng (the only male panda born in San Diego). Both of these pandas have now returned to the Wolong Giant Panda Research Station in China, as part of the agreement between the San Diego Zoo and the Panda Research Station.

Hua Mei has gone on to be an amazing breeder, having given birth to three sets of twins and a single cub.

Viator offers admission tickets to the San Diego zoo (we also offer a San Diego zoo ticket with transport from local hotels). Though you won’t be able to see Bai Yun or her new cub for a few months (unless you’re watching them on the zoo’s Panda Cam), there are always her two offspring (and their dad, let’s give pappa panda some due props!) to see. The San Diego zoo is one of the only places in the United States that you can see these rare and gorgeous animals!

-Jenny Crossling

Planning a trip? Browse Viator’s San Diego tours & things to do in San Diego, from San Diego theme park tickets such as SeaWorld, Legoland and the San Diego Zoo.

Sosauce? Community for travel geeks.

Editor’s note: We came across the travel website www.sosauce.com a few weeks ago, and wanted to learn more. So we sent them some questions. The founders, Sean and Howard, and Alisha in the marketing team, were kind enough to reply. You can also check out the Sosauce blog.

Q: So let’s start with the name. What does Sosauce mean? Is it a verb or a noun? Who came up with it?

A: Sosauce is short for “Social Sauce”. Basically Sosauce was born after our co-founders, Sean and Howard, were writing a business plan at NYU Stern. A friend of theirs stopped by their study room to see what was going on and Howard and Sean replied “putting a social sauce on this paper.” They used Social Sauce for the paper and the company, implying the goal of adding a certain spice to social connectivity today. Sosauce is pretty catchy and people use it all the time as a verb, most commonly “get sauced, get social” or “sosauced” or “sosaucing.” We like people using it as a verb, we’d like Sosauce to be synonymous with hardcore, fanatical travelers who enjoy recording trips.

Q: Your tag line is “Authentic travel community for travel geeks”. What’s a travel geek?

A: A travel geek is: A person who explores off the beaten path, often based on a particular interest. One who is independently minded, trusting of local advice over the establishment’s. A person who is willing to find and share local expertise with like-minded individuals. Our travel geeks on Sosauce.com are hardcore, eccentric travel enthusiasts documenting detailed journeys. But we also have ‘travel newbies’ like myself (Alisha) who use Sosauce as a gateway to the vast world of travel knowledge.

Q: How long has Sosauce been around? Since the site launched, what’s the #1 thing you’re most proud of having accomplished?

A: Social Sauce as a company has existed for more than 2 years. As a travel site, Sosauce launched in November 2008. In the most basic sense, we’re proud of building a functional site where our 20k+ users receive utility, value, and benefits from using Sosauce. But more recently, we’re most proud of getting our identity across in such a large online network.

Q: How is Sosauce different than a review site like Yelp or a trip planner site like Nileguide?

A: Sosauce is a progressive and passionate home for travel geeks- the curious traveler who is interested in writing, photography, exploration, and culture. It’s a place for those who see travel as a window to understanding the world, and desire to share their observations with other like-minded people. Our trip planning is fairly easy, but not our focus. We’re more of a site to use for travel recording. We’re not necessarily an editorial guide but instead all our reviews and content is user-generated. Our guide is a collection of people’s travel experiences in which others user to discover information. With reviews, any destination goes on Sosauce which mean our collection is more fluid. As long as people are curious enough to write about a destination, our reviews will grow. We’re also different in that we accommodate to how people use Sosauce. We constantly are improving interactivity, navigation, and features on the site to enhance our users’ travel recording experience.

Q: Do you have a favorite Sosauce traveler? Who is it, and why?

A: (Alisha) Everyone you see on the home page is my favorite! Marianna, Hachi, Naval, Larissa. Their photos are incredible, stunning, amazing, and beautiful. I could go on and on about their photography. I also love all the places they’ve been to. I’m pretty jealous of their content to say the least. (Sean) Like songs, my favorite traveler varies from time to time. Right now it’s Luke Burrage. He travels the world juggling. How cool is that? His photos are a blast to look at. They make me want to run off and take an adventure every time.

Q: If you could travel anywhere right now, where would you go?

A: (Alisha) SPAIN! I must go there as soon as possible and experience the life, sounds, and tastes of a Spaniard. (Howard) Ideally Petra. In reality, Disney World. (Sean) India! I’m fascinated by this country. There’s so much promise yet so much despair. It’s massive size, varied terrain, rich culture, and changing face have me intrigued like no other place.

-Viator Travel Team

On one hand, Google Maps is a great tool. Remember MapQuest? Not so much. That’s because Google came along with a superior mapping application. And then they opened their map API, which introduced the world to the idea of mash-ups. And let’s not forget Google Local and Google Local Business Center, two ways of integrating real-world locations into Google Map results.

So far, so good.  Google makes a kick-ass product (maps) and dominates the world (again).

So why I am so pissed off?

Sometimes I laugh when I read about spammers abusing the Google Local results; here’s a funny one, do a search on “new york locksmith” and have a look at the map results (or click here if you’re lazy). Notice anything fishy? Do you really think there are 73,000+ locksmiths in New York? Probably not. Dig into the results more, there are some funny listings here, you’ll see what I mean.

I never thought too much about it, and then I read (props for the link, Suzann) about a guy who’s making a business as a Google Local spammer. It’s an interesting article, and a scary one.

Why scary? Because he’s basically given out the secret for spamming Google’s map results. Not just a little spamming, a lot of spamming! As in, do you want to own the #1 spot for “payday loans” in every city in America??? Well, now you can. Just click and he’ll tell you how.

I don’t mind spam as long as it’s limited to casinos, payday loans, porn, Viagara, pet food, and lists of local dentists. But when I see spam hitting close to home, I get pissed. And here’s the example that drove me over the edge. Funny enough, they’re using the Mail Boxes Etc strategy outlined above.

Google Maps Spam: I hate it

Do a search on “san diego tours” and this is what you see:

I’m not going to honor the spammer with a link, even a no-follow link, but you can tell what site I’m talking about. They’re a competitor to us (which is fine, competition is a good thing) who is abusing Google Local Business listings to get included at the top of natural search results (not OK).

How do I know this is spam? Well, I know these people don’t have an office in San Diego. Travel is a small world, and you get to know the main players. And trust me, I know they don’t have a real office in San Diego.

Can I prove it? Why yes, I can! Simply take the address (listed in both their paid ad and in the Google Map result) and enter that address into Google Maps itself. Want to guess what you’ll find?

Imagine that. The address matches a Mailboxes Etc. in San Diego. Am I surprised? Not really. This company owns about 1,200 domains and uses a similar strategy in cities across the United States.

Oh well, I guess all is fair in love, war, and travel. I can’t blame these people for trying. It’s Google Maps that ought to be ashamed. If there are entire industries out there dedicated to abusing Google Maps this way, why isn’t Google doing anything about it?

If they don’t deal with this, people will lose faith in the integrity of their search results. And for a company like Google, that’s not a happy prospect. Or at least, it shouldn’t be.

-Scott McNeely

PS: I can’t help myself, once you start looking for Google Map spam it’s kind of fun and addictive (like crystal meth, presumably, with similar long-term affects on my mood and facial features). Here’s one. Do a search on “new york helicopter tours” and enjoy these fantastically crappy Google Local results.

What's new in Vegas? Read on....

New Las Vegas Shows

First up, the incomparable Donny & Marie at the Flamingo. This is a great show that highlights the talent, rapport and voices of this brother and sister act. They sing a variety of songs – both individually and together to form a show that is suitable for all ages. You’ll be rocking out in your seat to this duo - guaranteed!

Legends, in their new home at Harrahs Hotel and Casino, is not only one of the longest-running shows on the Las Vegas Strip, it also features the best of the best impersonators. The show is constantly changing their roster of stars, so you’ll rarely get the same show twice. Your entertainers for the night may include Whitney Houston, Garth Brooks, Elvis Presley, David Bowie or Britney Spears. This is another show that is suitable for all ages. Amnd right now we’re running a special 10% off tickets (which equals a free seating upgrade) as well as 50% off the buffet (this is Vegas, after all, the buffets are de rigeur).

Next up, the Vinnie Favorito Comedy Show. You may not have heard of this comic, but once you see Vinnie, you’ll never, ever forget him! He starts out innocently enough – just asking you questions, your name, who you’re with, then POW! You just never know where Vinnie is going to take the conversation, and you can’t help but have tears of laughter by the end of the show. Because his show is based on the audience members, you will never get the same show twice. Don’t be put off by the audience participation aspect of this show – you will honestly feel left out if he doesn’t speak to you. Just a word of warning – this show features colorful language and is not for the feint-hearted, but if you’re OK with that – you shouldn’t miss this one! As a special offer, if you book and travel by August 31, 2009, you will receive either a free ‘Best of Vinnie Favorito’ CD or free T-Shirt.

Who would have ever thought that 4 white guys from Sydney, Australia could ever be the new darlings of Motown? Human Nature are well known back in their hometown (and mine), but are just commencing their year-long engagement at the Imperial Palace. Smokey Robinson is presenting this show, and if he’s put his name to it – you know it must be great. They sing 2 incredible a capella songs – “People get Ready” and “Ooh Baby Baby”, but the harmonies on the other songs are simply not to be missed. And yes, we have a special! Book and travel by August 31, 2009, and all general admission seating will be upgraded to VIP seating for free.

Last of the new shows on Viator, Carrot Top at the Luxor. This is a truly funny show. Carrot Top combines the physical comedy of someone like Gallagher, with the cerebral comedy of a Dennis Miller. His show features a bottomless pit of ever-changing props and these are incorporated into his up-to-the-minute topical jokes featuring politics and pop culture. For a limited time, when you book on Viator.com, you will receive a free Carrot Top CD.

Las Vegas NASCAR to Hoover Dam

For those adrenaline junkies out there – we have just launched the Richard Petty Ride Along at Las Vegas Speedway. Here, you can take a few laps around the track with a professional NASCAR driver for that once-in-a-lifetime experience! To make the most out of your experience, you can upgrade to a tour of the speedway facility which also includes transport from the Strip. As a special offer, if you book and travel by July 31, 2009 – every guest will receive a free photo in the race car!

What better way to spend an evening than a romantic dinner and a helicopter flight over the famous Las Vegas Strip? We just released a brand new package that includes a 3-course meal, your helicopter flight over hotels such as the Bellagio, Paris, New York New York and the soon to be completed City Center, and all your transportation to and from the venues. For travel until July 31, you’ll receive a 20% discount off the retail price!

And finally, what trip to Vegas is complete without a visit to Hoover Dam? New on Viator this week is a helicopter flight over Hoover Dam. You will have incredible, unobstructed views of the dam, the incredible bridge that is soon to be complete as a Hoover Dam bypass (seriously amazing feat of engineering here), and stunning Lake Mead. Roundtrip transportation is also included from your hotel. Once again, we have a great deal for you – if you book now, you’ll get a 10% discount of the retail price.

Stay tuned … we have more great new things coming up in the not too distant future, so be sure to keep checking back on our site for updates!

-Viator Las Vegas Team

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Happn.in - the future of travel recommendations?

Good idea, folks. Wish we had thought of it. There are some kinks to work out, for sure. I don’t know if “xbox live” is really the #1 trend in about a dozen cities right now. C’mon, please tell us it ain’t so!

On the flip side, there’s a decent chance that “modern warfare” is, in fact, the second-most talked about subject in New York today. For sure.