Archives for Jessica Feaster

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  1. NORWALK, Conn., April 11, 2013 – Priceline Partner Network, a business unit of priceline.com (Nasdaq: PCLN), today announced a partnership with MapQuest to power its newly launched feature to book travel. MapQuest, the online travel brand, is a wholly owned subsidiary of AOL Inc.

    The partnership will give travelers access to thousands of hotel, airline and rental car services through the MapQuest ecosystem, including within MapQuest Discover, which aims to help people imagine, plan, and now book upcoming trips, and MapQuest Travel Blogs, which allows users to share their trips with their friends, family or the world.

    The robust collection of travel services offered by MapQuest via the Priceline Partner Network includes:

    • The ability to search, compare and book published-price hotel rooms at thousands of quality chain and independent hotels around the world. MapQuest travelers will also have access to Priceline’s database of hotel specials, including instant discounts, free breakfast, free Internet access and more;
    • Access to thousands of rental cars worldwide and support of rental car company discount codes;
    Airline ticketing with almost all major airlines, including seat mapping, the ability to book different classes of seats and the use of airline frequent flier numbers.

    “Through this partnership with Priceline, we’re able to continue growing our brand from being the online mapping pioneer into being a leader in digital travel directions,” says Brian McMahon, General Manager of MapQuest. “We’re excited to continue enhancing our product with booking functionality and travel content. It speaks to our goal of providing value to our users and simplifying each step of the traveler’s journey.”

    # # #

    About The Priceline Partner Network
    The Priceline Partner Network (PPN) http://www.pricelinepartnernetwork.com is the private-label distribution channel for priceline.com travel services. Working behind the scenes, PPN powers travel websites for a spectrum of affinity groups, airlines and hotel management firms and chains. PPN believes that it offers the most customizable private-label travel affiliate program on the market today. PPN’s private-label services include hotels, flights, rental cars, flight & hotel packages, and priceline.com’s famous Name Your Own Price travel services for hotels, airline tickets and rental cars.

    About The Priceline Group
    The Priceline Group (Nasdaq: PCLN) is a leader in global online hotel reservations, with over 295,000 participating hotels and accommodations worldwide. The Group is composed of four primary brands – Booking.com, priceline.com, Agoda.com and rentalcars.com – and several ancillary brands. The Priceline Group provides online
    travel services in over 190 countries and territories in Europe, North America, South America, the Asia-Pacific region, the Middle East and Africa.

    Booking.com is the number one online hotel reservation service in the world, offering over 275,000 hotels and accommodations (as of February 25, 2013), and is available in 41 languages. More recent counts are available on the Booking.com website. Priceline.com gives leisure travelers multiple ways to save on their airline tickets, hotel
    rooms, rental cars, vacation packages and cruises. In addition to getting compelling published prices, travelers can take advantage of priceline.com’s famous Name Your Own Price® service, which can deliver the lowest prices available, or the recently added Express Deals, where travelers can take advantage of hotel discounts without bidding.

    Agoda.com is an Asia-based online hotel reservation service that is available in 38 languages. Rentalcars.com is a multinational rental car service, offering its reservation
    services in over 6,000 locations. Customer support is provided in 40 languages.

    About MapQuest
    MapQuest provides Internet, mobile and business solutions delivering on the promise of helping people dream, plan, share and go wherever the map meets their life. MapQuest is one of the leading mapping brands online, reaching 35.2 million web users in March 2013 and 16.5 million mobile users in February 2013 (based on three month averages), according to comScore Media Metrix and MobiLens. MapQuest’s mobile solutions are compatible with a variety of mobile devices, including iPhone and Android devices. MapQuest, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of AOL Inc, is based in Denver, Colo.

    Media Contacts:
    priceline.com – Media: Brian Ek (203) 299-8167 brian.ek@priceline.com
    priceline.com – Investor Relations: Matthew Tynan (203) 299-8487 matthew.tynan@priceline.com
    MapQuest/AOL – Media: Doug Serton (212) 402-4715 doug.serton@teamaol.com

  2. DENVER (February 28, 2013) – AOL’s MapQuest today announces the launch of Travel Blogs, a feature designed to help travelers seamlessly capture and share their adventures within an online travel journal while encouraging others to set out on their own journey. This is the second product introduction for the brand as it develops into a platform that helps inspire people where to go, plan how to get there and share their experiences.

    Travel Blogs is available through a new iPhone app available for download and on desktop allowing users to create visual archives of their trips using photographs, stories, reviews of places they visited and the route traveled.

    “MapQuest has a great history of helping people get to where they want to go,” says Brian McMahon, General Manager of MapQuest, “and now we’re growing the brand to have a role beyond setting directions. With tools like Travel Blogs, we’re building a product ecosystem that enhances the traveler’s experience at each step in the journey.”

    The free travel blog app works both on and offline, so users can create a travel journal by adding images and other content even when they don’t have an Internet connection. This comes in handy for travelers visiting locations beyond where their mobile data plans provide coverage.

    Once online, the app can sync to update the blog. From there, blogs can be shared at anytime through the user’s social channels or via email through an individually curated distribution list. In the coming months, authors will also be able to turn their blogs into a physical photo book.

    Users can choose to keep their blogs private, but those who allow for public viewing will have their blogs be part of a larger collection of content throughout MapQuest Discover, the brand’s social travel platform, and the AOL network. The aim is to spark curiosity and inspiration for others to set off on their own adventures.

    “Content is an important part of any digital product,” says McMahon, “and Travel Blogs will help us build out our existing catalogue of authentic stories designed to inspire readers to hit the road again or book that next flight.”

    Some examples of MapQuest Travel Blogs include:

    http://travelblogs.mapquest.com/runwaysandrails/runways-and-rails

    http://travelblogs.mapquest.com/francislobo/maui-in-one-week

    http://travelblogs.mapquest.com/stacyandlee/spices-and-treks-culinary-adventures-around-the-world

    http://travelblogs.mapquest.com/francislobo/maui-in-one-week

    # # #

    About MapQuest
    MapQuest provides Internet, mobile and business solutions delivering on the promise of helping people dream, plan, share and go wherever the map meets their life. MapQuest is one of the leading mapping brands online, reaching 33.6 million web users in January 2013 and 16.1 million mobile users in December 2012, according to comScore Media Metrix and MobiLens. MapQuest’s mobile solutions are compatible with a variety of mobile devices, including iPhone and Android devices. MapQuest, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of AOL Inc, is based in Denver, Colo.

    Media Contact: Doug Serton, 212-402-4715 doug.serton@teamaol.com

  3. DENVER (November 13, 2012) – Today, MapQuest, a wholly owned subsidiary of AOL Inc. (NYSE: AOL), announces MapQuest Discover, one of several upcoming tools focused on the complete travel experience: discovering, planning, exploring and documenting the places where the map meets life. MapQuest Discover is part of the ongoing evolution of MapQuest’s products and services designed to help enhance a traveler’s journey.

    At launch, MapQuest Discover features a social platform that encourages destination discovery through photos, allowing users to create and share collections and photos from trips they’ve taken or are currently planning.

    “MapQuest Discover captures how a traveler gets inspired,” said Francis Lobo, senior vice president of AOL Services. “As one user’s collections pique another’s interest, the MapQuest Discover platform spurs continued travel and shared experiences.”

    MapQuest Discover
    This beta release of MapQuest Discover focuses on places, inspiring you to explore and share with customized collections of destinations in a photo or map format.

    Components of MapQuest Discover include:
    Collections: a feature that allows users to create and share collections of their favorite places (“My favorite pubs” or “The Best Golf Courses in North America”), the trips they’ve been on or their bucket lists filled with places they want to go. Collections have a leaderboard which shows who’s been to the most places in that collection, encouraging good natured bragging rights (“I’ve been to 49 of the 50 states!”).
    Newsfeed: an infinite scroll of interesting places, popular collections and guides by professional travel writers to inspire you. Users can quickly Like a place, mark that they have Been to a place, or add a place to one of their own Collections. Popular collections are influenced by user’s favorites and featured higher in the news feed.
    Passport: a user’s “Passport” serves as their profile page and shows all the places a user has been, collections created, and more.
    Travel Content: access to hundreds of travel guides written by travel experts, inspiring articles about top travel destinations to help make travel planning even easier.

    In addition to launching MapQuest Discover, the team is revamping MapQuest Local pages about states, cities, places, and neighborhoods to now include reviews, deals, travel guides and related collections from MapQuest Discover for more convenient trip planning.

    “Since more than 84 percent of all domestic trips in the United States are taken in a car*, we believe MapQuest is perfectly suited to act as a true virtual concierge,” said Brian McMahon, General Manager of MapQuest. “This is just the beginning of a complete suite of helpful products and tools you’ll be seeing from MapQuest over the next several months to help travelers discover, plan, experience and share their journeys.”

    For 16 years, MapQuest has played an instrumental role in helping people navigate the world. Today, MapQuest is the 17th most popular mobile brand** and a top 35 website.*** With the launch of MapQuest Discover, MapQuest is extending its capabilities to not only get users where they want to go with direction and planning – but to inspire them to go there.


    *AAA Travel Study 2012 http://newsroom.aaa.com/category/travel
    **comScore MobiLens, September 2012
    ***comScore Media Metrix, September 2012

    # # #

    About MapQuest
    MapQuest provides Internet, mobile and business solutions delivering on the promise of helping people dream, plan, share and go wherever the map meets their life. MapQuest is one of the leading mapping brands online, offering maps and directions, and reaching 37 million users in September 2012, according to comScore Media Metrix. MapQuest’s mobile solutions are compatible with a variety of mobile devices, including iPhone and Android devices. MapQuest, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of AOL Inc, is based in Denver, Colo.

    Media Contact:Anke Corbin, 760-707-8202 anke.corbin@mapquest.com

  4. Awards Free Gas to One Winner Each Day During the Month of December

    Winners Can Save $1,220 in Gasoline

    DENVER, CO – December 1, 2010

    MapQuest, a wholly owned subsidiary of AOL Inc. (NYSE: AOL), today announced a month-long “Free Gas for a Year” sweepstakes timed to help ease budgets during the holiday season. MapQuest will be giving away free gas for a year to 31 people – one winner, everyday, during the month of December. Assuming the average consumer drives 12,000 miles each year, this is a savings of $1,220* per winner.

    Starting on December 1 at 8:00 a.m. ET, consumers are invited to enter the sweepstakes at www.freegas.mapquest.com and complete the “Free Gas for a Year” form. Each day at 3:00 p.m. ET a winner will be chosen and announced on the site. The last day to enter the sweepstakes is December 31 at 5:00 p.m. ET. In addition to entering each day, contestants can increase their chances of winning by sharing with friends and family. By posting participation in the sweepstakes on social networks such as Facebook and Twitter, contestants will receive an extra entry for each person, up to 25 people, that enter.

    “MapQuest has always been about getting people where they need to go,” said Christian Dwyer, General Manager of MapQuest. “With the holidays fast approaching, what better way to say thank you than by giving away gas for a year. We hope you are one of the lucky 31 to win so there is one less thing to consider for your next road trip.”

    About MapQuest
    MapQuest provides Internet, mobile and business solutions delivering on the promise of helping people research and discover: where is it, how I get there and what’s nearby. MapQuest is one of the leading mapping brands online, offering maps and directions, reaching more than 47.0 million users in October 2010, according to comScore Media Metrix. MapQuest’s mobile solutions are compatible with a variety of mobile devices, including iPhone and BlackBerry devices. MapQuest, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of AOL Inc, is based in Denver, Colorado.

    *Assumes a consumer drives 12,000 miles/year (AAA); the car gets 23.1 miles to the gallon (AAA); gas is $2.35 regular gas/gallon (US Energy Information Administration). All numbers based on 2009 averages.

    Contact:
    Caroline Campbell
    c.campbell@corp.aol.com
    917-606-4772

  5. First Asian Site on OpenStreetMap Data Launches in India

    Continues European Rollout with Sites in Austria and Belgium

    DENVER, CO – October 18, 2010

    MapQuest, a wholly owned subsidiary of AOL Inc. (NYSE: AOL), today announced the beta launch of its new mapping site in India built on OpenStreetMap (OSM) data. This is MapQuest’s first OSM-based site outside of Europe. MapQuest also launched two more beta sites using OSM data in Central Europe – Austria and Belgium. All three sites have the new MapQuest branding and user experience, and will leverage OSM data, allowing users to improve upon their local areas such as editing streets in their neighborhood, bike paths, parks, hiking trails and more.

    MapQuest has rolled out a total of eight sites using OSM data since July. The countries have been selected because of the enthusiasm of the OSM community in each region, in addition to the amount of rich data that is available. The three sites launched today can be found at http://open.mapquest.in/; http://open.mapquest.at/; http://open.mapquest.be/. The other MapQuest OSM sites are in the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy and Spain.

    “We see enormous potential for open data to serve the needs of growing and dynamic regions such as India, and think that our new site will be instrumental in driving the adoption of OpenStreetMap in the area,” said Antony Pegg, Product Manager, MapQuest. “We firmly believe that enabling community experts will help the quality of local mapping worldwide.”

    The three new OSM-based sites introduced today have features that all of the commercial MapQuest sites have, including an easy-to-use map style, single-box search functionality and driving directions with draggable routes.

    About MapQuest
    MapQuest provides Internet, mobile and business solutions delivering on the promise of helping people research and discover: where is it, how I get there and what’s nearby. MapQuest is one of the leading mapping brands online, offering maps and directions, reaching 47 million users in the U.S. in September 2010, according to comScore Media Metrix. MapQuest’s mobile solutions are compatible with a variety of mobile devices, including iPhone and BlackBerry devices. MapQuest, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of AOL Inc, is based in Denver, Colorado.

    Contact:
    Caroline Campbell
    VP, AOL Corporate Communications
    917-606-4772
    c.campbell@corp.aol.com