Yahoo! has added a ‘travel image refiner’ to image search queries for specific destinations, which, in their own words, allows you to “take a virtual tour of popular points of interest when you search for a destination in Yahoo! Image Search.”

Yahoo! Travel Image Refiner

A query for ‘Las Vegas’ on Yahoo’s image search, as you can see above, shows up a sidebar on the left which links to categorized photo collections of the most popular places and attractions in Sin City.

A blog post on the Yahoo! Search blog, where this tweak was announced, says that “The Yahoo! Image Search refiner is currently available for location-specific searches, but we are planning to expand this capability to other types of image searches as well.”

While Google’s image search does not offer a similar refining feature (as yet), they do offer it Google Maps, where if you search for a specific destination or address, you get results on the left sidebar somewhat similar to Yahoo’s refiner.

Google Maps snapshot

Shouldn’t take too long for Google to extend this offering to image search – if they feel the need to do so. Also, in case you’re wondering, Yahoo! launched this feature before the Microsoft-Yahoo search partnership deal was made public. So it’s possible that this could fizzle out, but on merit – it’s a good thing for image search.

Bankruptcy isn’t turning out to be such a bad deal for Frontier Airlines.

Ready to play?

Until late last week, it looked like only Republic Airways Holdings was interested in buying the low-cost carrier for $108.75 million. Then on Thursday, Southwest Airlines indicated it was entering the bidding war, waving $113.6 million at the New York federal bankruptcy court handling the paperwork. Now it’s a ping-pong match, with industry bystanders whipping their heads toward Republic to see if it will up its ante.

The game can continue until August 10.

Frontier draws this attention because it has done a great job of market positioning, even if that cash/profit angle didn’t pan out and it scores below average on customer satisfaction rankings.  If Southwest buys it, this would open the door for passengers to move about the Northern Hemisphere instead of just the country. Mexico, Costa Rica — here we come.

“We are excited about the opportunity to submit a bid,” Southwest chairman and chief executive Gary Kelly has said in a prepared statement. “We see a strong fit between our company cultures, a mutual commitment to high quality customer service and similar entrepreneurial roots.” Definitely written by the public relations staff because real people would say, “We see an opportunity to bury a competitor who is kicking our butt at its hub in Denver.”

And that’s despite the fact Southwest sends 121 flights out of Denver daily after starting with just 13 flights in 2006. It’s the fastest accelleration in any one market in the airline’s history, and still Frontier is that market’s second choice behind United Airlines (UA: 34 percent of Denver’s traffic, Frontier 21 percent, Southwest 14).

“Frontier seems to have that Denver traffic down pretty well. What they [Southwest] pick up with Frontier is more originating traffic than they’ve ever had, and it’s all profitable traffic,” airline consultant Darryl Jenkins told the Dallas News.

On the other hand, if Republic wins, it has said it will extend the pilots’ contract by another three years — a major kiss-up move that is winning friends in the right places for its merger bid. On the other hand, even the Frontier Airline Pilots Association president John Stemmler admits Southwest has one of the highest paying policies, for those who would survive any labor force reductions and seniority arguments from the merger.

Which puts us at 10-all on August 3.

Photography: Jsome1

Like every other sector, the hotel industry too has it’s own set of A-list bloggers who lead the conversation. These 15 hotel blogs and their bloggers listed here offer their readers the best hospitality experience, so to speak.

Hotelchatter

Hotel Check-in – USA Today blog run by Barbara De Lollis, focusing mainly on business travel and new developments in the hotel industry.

Also shares plenty of hotel deals and entertaining news stories related to hotels. Hotel Check-in leverages it’s brand quite often to attract guest posts by CEO’s and senior executives from the hotel industry.

Uptake Hotels blog – Very dedicated group of hotel bloggers, with plenty of reviews and tips for finding the right hotels. Color me biased, but Uptake’s Hotels blog would merit a mention on this list even if it was being compiled elsewhere.

Hotel News Now -  HNN is a division of Smith Travel Research, which gives this blog exclusive access to all kinds of data and insight into the latest trends and reports for the global hotel industry. It also helps to have the Managing Director, President and CEO of STR blogging for you. Very useful blog if you need the latest facts and figures for presentations or articles.

Hotels Magazine – Not just a blog, but blogs – 10 of them. Each blog authored by industry experts with decades of relevant industry experience. For example, Lyndall De Marco, co-author of the Eco-Speak blog, was executive director of the International Tourism Partnership and runs a consultancy which helps clients merge profitability with sustainability. The other co-author, Ray Burger, is president and founder of Pineapple Hospitality Inc., with over 30 years of experience in the lodging industry.

Hotel Law Blog – This blog is a part of the Global Hospitality Group, and again, authored by a terrific group of heavily experienced hotel lawyers led by Jim Butler and senior hospitality industry executives. If it has anything to do with hotel financing or legal issues affecting the hospitality industry, then you’ll find it here.

Three hotel bloggers who seem to have all their ducks lined up properly include Josiah Mackenzie of HotelMarketingStrategies.com, the Happy Hotelier, and Guillaume Thevenot of Hotel-Blogs.com.

Mention also needs to be made of two blogs – Gadling and LA Times’ Daily Deal blog - which aren’t exactly limited to hotels. It’s a compliment to these blogs and their writers that the range, quality and quantity of their hotel related content beats the offerings of many blogs which are solely devoted to hotels.

You might also enjoy checking out these three ’company’ blogs – Bill Marriott’s Blog (Marriott on the Move), the Dealbase blog, and Oyster Hotel Reviews blog.

And lastly, did you know about the TA hotel reviews which don’t get published? You can find them on the We Are Not Making This Up blog.