Google do very well with most things they try their hand at, I must admit I use their services for most of my web needs: Google Chrome, analytics, mail, reader etc., but the thought of Google entering the travel industry does make me a bit nervous.
As Alex Bainbridge reported on Tnooz.com, Google have started a twitter account for their travel brand and are following most of the major players and a few start-ups. If their past strategy is anything to go by, I assume they will look to integrate a few key businesses in to the fold, build on them and have extremely successful results with the end product. Yahoo have already tried to do something similar with TotalTravel.com, (See my take on this here) but Google will have much stronger peripheral services to back up their offering. Things like Google Maps, YouTube and Google Earth will give them an immediate leg up on anyone else in the game.
Will Google do to travel what they did to online video, search engines, blogging ( Blogger), online mail, and online advertising? An older article from Business week (late 2008) tells us that Google looks to focus on travel advertising and information rather than actually booking inventory, but that raises two questions for me. First, how will they decide which OTAs/airlines to push? Will there be a buy-in option as there is for ads or will they buy out a few key providers for exclusive use? I assume there would be some kind of middle ground in the form of aggregation (Kayak?) but it’s hard to guess. Secondly, how will this affect the current organic search results? If Google is going to focus on advertising of travel products, this will undoubtedly have a negative result for online travel brands and their SEO.
One last reason why Google Travel makes me nervous is the current market capacity, (or lack of). The internet is indeed a very big place, the below video by Socialnomics on social media makes a good point: The internet is unstoppable. With Google in control of so much, I fear the little guys in travel will be the ones to lose out, seeing as they won’t have the money to compete head-on without buying in to the Google plan.
I for one will be watching @googletravel very closely for some clues as to where they will be heading. Hopefully whatever route they take does not destroy the SME’s of the industry as their innovation is paramount to the success of travel on a global scale.
It is time that Google come up with some thing like Holiday IQ doing. They put up requests from travelers for any destination that can be pulled by travel agents after they become a vendor by making payment to Holiday IQ. Presently Holiday IQ is the lone player and as such they are not accountable for any wrong reuqests and travel agents lose money by pulling such requests. I am sure Google with its expertise will do far better and it will do a lot for travel business.
Google Travel, should we be worried?
As Alex Bainbridge reported on Tnooz.com, Google have started a twitter account for their travel brand and are following most of the major players and a few start-ups. If their past strategy is anything to go by, I assume they will look to integrate a few key businesses in to the fold, build on them and have extremely successful results with the end product. Yahoo have already tried to do something similar with TotalTravel.com, (See my take on this here) but Google will have much stronger peripheral services to back up their offering. Things like Google Maps, YouTube and Google Earth will give them an immediate leg up on anyone else in the game.
Will Google do to travel what they did to online video, search engines, blogging ( Blogger), online mail, and online advertising? An older article from Business week (late 2008) tells us that Google looks to focus on travel advertising and information rather than actually booking inventory, but that raises two questions for me. First, how will they decide which OTAs/airlines to push? Will there be a buy-in option as there is for ads or will they buy out a few key providers for exclusive use? I assume there would be some kind of middle ground in the form of aggregation (Kayak?) but it’s hard to guess. Secondly, how will this affect the current organic search results? If Google is going to focus on advertising of travel products, this will undoubtedly have a negative result for online travel brands and their SEO.
One last reason why Google Travel makes me nervous is the current market capacity, (or lack of). The internet is indeed a very big place, the below video by Socialnomics on social media makes a good point: The internet is unstoppable. With Google in control of so much, I fear the little guys in travel will be the ones to lose out, seeing as they won’t have the money to compete head-on without buying in to the Google plan.
I for one will be watching @googletravel very closely for some clues as to where they will be heading. Hopefully whatever route they take does not destroy the SME’s of the industry as their innovation is paramount to the success of travel on a global scale.