Tastelink is the provisional name of the internet service devised by Van Den Biggelaar’s company Bigglab. Basically, Tastelink creates an international network of people who rate or recommend a host of experiences: attractions, hotels and restaurants as well as books, music and much more.

‘Quite simply, the idea has grown out of my own need for good information,’ says Maarten van den Biggelaar. ‘I know I can visit websites, buy a Michelin guide or Lonely Planet, but for me that’s not enough. I’d rather hear from a good friend who’s been somewhere that I should go to such and such a hotel, book a specific room, eat in a particular restaurant and order a meal that comes personally recommended. That’s valuable, not a list of hotels boasting four or five stars. The information can be expanded to include literature, film, concerts, and theatre. The possibilities are endless. Incidentally, it won’t be a website as such, but a widget, an application, on, say, social networking sites. The latest activity will be ‘biggelen’ not ‘googling’.’

Highly motivated

It was this idea of an ‘expert system’ that Maarten and his associate Ruben Brave brought to TNO. Coincidentally, TNO had pitched a similar under the Small Business Innovation Research programme (SBIR), a forum in which TNO challenges innovative business people to develop and commercialise TNO ideas. Bigglab won a budget for the second round. The next step was to study the technical and financial feasibility of the idea.

‘In recent months we have carried out more technical research and Bigglab has written a business case,’ explains Mascha van Dort, TNO business consultant. ‘At the end of September we heard that Bigglab had won a budget for the next phase. Now we are entering the phase in which the technology underpinning service is developed and we verify that it works. By the way, we have carried out an extensive, worldwide search to establish whether something similar already exists, but apart from a couple of start-ups in the US that are using different technology, there’s nothing. When Tastelink goes live, it will be absolutely unique. That’s why everyone is so highly motivated.’

Self-learning algorithms

One of the underlying technologies is media mining, a method for rapidly making connections within unstructured information and extracting or adding relevant data at an amazing speed. TNO currently has a strong international reputation in this field. The organisation is developing self-learning algorithms for media mining techniques such as language technology and machine learning. Other companies, such as e-commerce sites and social networks will be able to use the software that TNO will develop for Bigglab.

‘This has huge potential,’ says Maarten van den Biggelaar. ‘Let me give you an example. You are in a country where something exciting is happening. Via Tastelink you could be linked to a speaker of your own language who’s on the spot, with whom you have some sort of click and who is well-informed. That is much more relevant than visiting the website of a newspaper or broadcaster. As you can see, we aren’t using the method preferred by iTunes or Amazon, which is to give you recommendations based on your purchasing behaviour. Instead we provide information tailored to suit you based on individual taste and a rating given by your personal contacts. That is new and unique.’