Blog homeAs I have mentioned a few times (!) I will be taking part in a public discussion with Google Travel UK during World Travel Market [London 2008].
Seminar details - Thursday 13th Nov
What questions do you have for Google?
- Competitors bidding on your trademark issues - no one cares about this now - do they?
- Keyword bid price inflation - a problem - but not much Google can do about that - except get more travel content publishers on board to increase supply
- Account management - interesting - but not really a worry to all as only large travel companies have account managers with Google
- Strategy - any insights on that?
- How to rank well - er….. don’t think Google will give any hints on that so a bit pointless asking
On a related topic, I read the news that for non-travel ecommerce, comparison sites now drive 10% of online sales (see news from InternetRetailing blog).
A key quote from that article is:
“Google Shopping/Google Base is the most commonly used (by retailers) comparison engine, utilised by 63% of retailers. Half of online retailers surveyed said that they used Kelkoo while PriceRunner, Shopping.com, and Shopzilla are each used by 30% of internet retailers.”
So if Google have one of the best price comparison systems for non-travel ecommerce…… it can only be a matter of time before they have a travel one - regardless of how many times Google deny it. When they do launch in travel I expect it will be a “game changer” for the travel industry….. I personally would welcome it because I am sure Google would do it in such a way that smaller travel companies could compete alongside larger ones…….
ps - if you are wondering why I have stopped writing this week - I am maxxed out with projects that need to go live before the UK sales season starts in Jan. No pressure then!
But for those who can’t function without their daily dose of my musings I have written something about Expedia and OTA business models, published on Travolution, if you are into that kind of thing.
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Well, this won’t come us a HUGE surprise to you, Alex, but I’d be totally fascinated to hear anything on the future of click to buy in YouTube and how it might affect travel. Or if you you didn’t get anywhere with that, more generally, the value of setting up a YouTube channel for a travel business.
Google search as of today is not contextual i.e. your context is defined by your keyword as a result your search is as good as your keyword. buying a travel product/service is contextual - depends on preferences, price & inventory. All these elements are required to define a product context for a buyer.
Unlike a travel search screen you find on OTA Google search page is just defined by one box so when you type Ticket to destination (for example) it does not show you the agents who have the right product it only shows you the pages that match the keyword, which is not enough to make a purchase.
Google has product like Google Maps and Videos that can definitely complement in travel purchase but not lead it.
Hi Alex
As you say above “When they do launch in travel I expect it will be a “game changer” for the travel industry….. I personally would welcome it because I am sure Google would do it in such a way that smaller travel companies could compete alongside larger ones…….”.
I’d really like to know how Google sees itself as part of the online travel “ecosystem”, what are they thinking, where do they fit in?
Also, have they examined the current ecosystem and considered the potential impact, both positive and negative, that “Google Travel” would have on the various types of players in the industry. For example how would it affect a medium-sized OTA using the consumer transactional business model?
Lastly, as I read somewhere, if Microsoft was currently the dominant global search provider any query remotely related to travel would surely lead to a results page dominated by offerings from Expedia. Personally I’m sure that Google’s “Do No Evil” mantra and user experience focus would preclude this from happening on their results pages, but if you can find a way to phrase a question about this I’d really like to know their answer.
Thanks everyone for the questions - ended up being a good session - although quite short at 1 hour
Neil - one factoid - a branded Youtube channel is now 50,000 GBP (100,000 USD approx.). Not sure what the price used to be - but I believe it was about 3x this much a while back - so prices seem to be coming down?
John - not sure Google are part of the ecosystem at all. They seem to have no concerns that their advertising system is becoming progressively more and more expensive (vs other distribution channels for travel product). If they were part of the “travel” industry they would be concerned - but I expect they see their competition elsewhere.
I have written a couple of blog posts about things that have struck me - mainly on keyword bid inflation
Post #1 - On Travolution
Post #2 - On this blog
Google repeated that they have no intentions of launching “Troogle” (they used this word this time without prompting….. we must be getting through to them). I wish they would launch something - as I believe they would do so with low technical and commercial barriers to entry - unlike other travel distribution systems (meaning that small, niche, tour operators can currently use Google - but the big travel distribution systems are only used by the large system suppliers)