Daka 90 travel site launches 3-D version

Special website deals or promotional content can be displayed in three dimensions, making it stand out next to the flat background and attract the viewer’s focus.

By RON FRIEDMAN
Popular travel company Daka 90 launched a first of its kind Web site on Monday in partnership with local software firm Visual Domains.
The site uses Visual Domains’ new surfing technology, which enables multi-page browsing with three-dimensional content, to enhance its e-commerce capabilities.
At a press conference at Daka 90’s offices in Tel Aviv, CEO Zvika Moshkovitz said his company was anticipating a large increase in Internet sales of travel and tourism products.
Moshkovitz said that whereas in the United States 70 percent of travel purchases were made on the Internet and in Europe the figure stood at 40%, in Israel only around 5% of sales were made online.
“Israelis like to speak to a representative on the phone before making the purchase. They still want to hear a human voice on the other end of the line. We believe that within a year or two this will change, and are preparing ourselves for the shift,” he said.
To use the new browser, named Venus, Internet users have to download a small software package and install it on their computer. The browser allows users to see multiple Web pages at the same time, fanned out 360 degrees.
Yoav Shefi, the founder and CEO of Visual Domains, explained what Venus is all about.
“What is a multi-dimensional Web site? Think of the home page of Daka 90. Every topic on the site – flights, hotels in Israel, foreign resorts, tourist attractions – is a square, a self-contained world of content. Today, in order to get to all of the possibilities, you have to navigate the site by clicking on links, each click opening up a single page at a time. Surfing a multi-dimensional Web site, is like looking at the entire Web site from a high vantage point, seeing all the pages aligned next to each other,” he said.
While surfers can use Venus to browse any Web site, the partnership with Daka 90 opens the door to additional content.
A quick demonstration of the browser’s capabilities presented a wealth of information on Rome as a travel destination. Venus unveiled all of Daka 90’s travel offers to the Italian capital, as well as a multitude of additional pages featuring things such as travel reviews, city maps, hotel and restaurant Web sites and weather forecasts.
Content that the Web site’s owners wish to highlight, for example special deals or promotional content, can be displayed in three dimensions, making it stand out next to the flat background and attract the viewer’s focus.
“We decided to adopt the idea and become the first electronic commerce Web site in the world to feature the new software,” said Ran Enoch, Daka 90 vice president for online operations."


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