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OAG Airline Awards Shortlist Announced

OAG (Official Airline Guide), a leading global authority on flight information, has released the shortlist for the 26th OAG Airline Industry Awards. The winners will be announced at the Awards ceremony on Wednesday, 4 June in the opulent art deco setting of The Bloomsbury Ballroom in central London. Boeing is the Awards' headline sponsor.

A total of 45 different airlines, three more than in 2007, have received nominations in 15 regional and global categories.

Air Canada, American Airlines, Continental Airlines, Delta Air Lines and United Airlines are nominated for best airline based in North America, while the nominees for best airline in Central, South America and the Caribbean include Aeromexico, Copa Airlines, LAN Airlines, Mexicana and TAM Brazilian Airlines. In 2007 the respective winners were Continental and Aeromexico. Airlines within North American are also strongly represented in the best Transatlantic category with three of the five nominees being US carriers.

Three TripAdvisor Travel Apps on MySpace

TripAdvisor, which markets itself as the world's largest travel community, has announced the launch of three of the web's top travel-focused social applications on MySpace, one of the most popular social networks. The applications, Cities I've Visited, Local Picks and Traveler IQ Challenge developed by Travelpod have been downloaded by more than six million users, and each provide the MySpace audience with unique ways to share travel information with friends, to challenge each other and to learn. Empowered by MySpace's newly announced Developer Platform, TripAdvisor was able to easily test and deploy the three popular applications in a few short weeks.

Cities I've Visited Travel Map

Sharing stories is half the fun of travel, and Cities I've Visited lets travelers quickly create an interactive travel map to share and compare with friends. They can pin all the cities, towns, and even suburbs they've visited -- and all the places they plan to visit. Cities I've Visited covers more than 20,000 destinations and is available in French, Italian, German and Spanish, enabling MySpace users all over to share their travel maps in their local language.

Carnival Rolls Out Redesign of Web Site

Carnival.com, the cruise industry's most visited Web site, has undergone an extensive redesign and emerged with a host of new features, including enhanced navigation and layout, a variety of images and content, and numerous technical advancements, all designed to make users' on-line experience easier and more informative than ever.

Highlighting the next generation of carnival.com are dozens of entertaining new videos and virtual tours, along with upgraded images and content showcasing all 22 of the line's "Fun Ships." Also included are upgrades to special sections focusing on various aspects of the Carnival vacation experience such as dining, spa, youth programs, destinations and shore excursions.

The "new and improved" carnival.com features an enriched Gifts and Services section that allows visitors to purchase a variety of items that can be delivered to guests' staterooms prior to their cruise. The section also includes detailed product descriptions for gifts ranging from special occasion cakes, fine wines and flowers to stateroom decorations and wedding/romance-themed gift packages.There is also an updated section where first-time cruisers and visitors can sign up for Carnival news and information via both email and RSS feeds.

iPhone Web Application for Rental Cars

Payless Car Rental has launched an iPhone and iPod Touch optimized website. Payless, a low-cost rental car company, is one of the first car rental agencies to build a customized version of its website for the iPhone and iPod Touch.

"Payless saw the need to create a slimmed-down version of its new website for the iPhone and iPod Touch community," said Jeff Lin, Project Leader of Payless' web marketing strategy team. "Payless' iPhone interface adds convenience and loads up faster than a full website would on an iPhone or iPod Touch," he added. "By pointing their iPhone or iPod Touch to http://www.PaylessCarRental.com, iPhone and iPod Touch users can book a car in just three easy steps."

iPhone users make up nearly one-third of smartphone users in the U.S., and the Safari browser is already the most popular mobile browser in the United States. Since Apple launched the iPhone last June, the iPhone has catapulted to number two in U.S. smartphone market share, trailing only Research In Motion's Blackberry.