BabelWith.me is a simple, free group chat tool that lets you communicate in one language or multiple languages (up to 45). Enjoy real-time conversations without language barriers - BabelWith.me automatically translates each message as you type.

obviously, this is still in it's infancy, wearing a big 'alpha' badge atop the logo. yet, the idea to peruse the translate.google.com api for a realtime chat is genius considering some translations provided are amazingly close to your natural usage of the language. at least it is a solution that could offer smaller hotels the opportunity to communicate with not only those potential guests that master the matching language but anyone of the 45 languages on offer. just don't refer to my previous blog on localization where i'm slamming down the quality of the localization provided...

Hotels.com has announced the launch of its new Chinese website, part of the company's continued expansion into the Asian Pacific region 

i know i'm quite late to realize, yet i wanted to share this information. expedia group now has it's own localized hotels.com version and expands it's presence in china in addition to the jv with elong.cn. this is seems like the last major language for hotels.com after they have just recently launched their arabic version (although fanadeq doesn't capture the arabic feel and leaves space for other entrants). hotels.com now boasts 25 different languages, more than any other hotel reservation site. this should be a strong foray into the apac region where currently other players such as priceline's agoda and booking as well as wotif's laterooms and asiawebdirect as well as orbitz's hotelclub/ratestogo have been historically strong. who's going to launch the next localized version? population-wise, the majority should be well covered except for malay language sites, capturing the techno-phile country as well as a share of the close to a billion indonesian citizens... who's up for a grab of that share except for agoda.com.my?

Microsoft Corp. signed a deal with Global Hyatt Corp. to put hotel ads on Verizon Wireless phones, part of a bid to turn around its shrinking advertising business by expanding beyond personal computers.

The Hyatt ads will encourage people to sign up for a frequent-guest program, as well as letting them book rooms and check in using their phones, said Charles Johnson, Microsoft’s general manager for mobile media. The companies plan to announce the deal today at an ad-industry conference in Cannes, France.

report doesn't really reveal too much info, let's wait and see what that ad-instustry even will bring forward. there's definitely opportunities out there for mobile ads but limiting your adspend on one network would be like displaying banner ads for one isp only... i guess this will probably grow with bluetooth capabilities as u can target phones in a more selected way, e.g. at airports

Trust International and RateTiger have announced a new cooperation to expand automated distribution of Trust partner hotels to additional Internet Distribution System (IDS) travel sales channels.

the first one of the big distribution players to offer channel management to it's customers. great move forward for both - who will follow suit?