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Hospitality Association Launches New Search Engine

To help hospitality industry professionals better find relevant resources, Hospitality Financial and Technology Professionals created a unique search engine.

Searching for information exclusive to the hospitality industry? You’ll soon be able to use an industry-specific search engine that Hospitality Financial and Technology Professionals plans to launch in October.

PineappleSearch.com, which is owned and operated by HFTP, aggregates curated B2B content from multiple sources into a single-search, open platform.

“The idea behind pineapple search is to offer a straightforward site that aggregates the information available,” Eliza Selig, HFTP’s director of communications, told Associations Now. “When an industry professional is researching or looking up information they will turn to Pineapple Search, which will be easily navigable, does not have a learning curve, and provides relevant results. The content is curated, and search results are weighted to return with ‘information-specific’ articles at the top.”

The new search engine will feature content such as whitepapers, articles, journals, and other resources.

The association, which represents professionals in the finance and technology sectors of hospitality, tested PineappleSearch.com at its Hospitality Industry Technology Exposition & Conference in June and incorporated focus group participants’ feedback and suggestions in the final development of the product.

Available for public use after its debut at HFTP’s annual meeting in October, Pineapple Search is about eight months in the making and was born out of a leadership summit the group held in the spring. The association hopes the industry will benefit by having a reliable information resource.

“A professional won’t have to wade through pages of search results that are weighted by ‘popularity’ and perhaps ad revenue,” Selig said. “Rather the importance of the results will be decided by its relevance to the hospitality industry specifically and the value of the information.”

(iStock/Thinkstock)

Katie Bascuas

By Katie Bascuas

Katie Bascuas is associate editor of Associations Now. MORE

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