Articles tagged “google”

Google-owned Waze is a compelling navigation app, but whether Google can turn it into the foundation for a winning ride-share service will have to be tested in the marketplace over the next few months and years. Google is a latecomer to the field, although the sector is likely to undergo more disruption and a revolution in years to come.

When it comes to the potential of Southeast Asia's diverse online travel market, investors and online travel brands can no longer view what will be a gigantic market as something they can ignore for now and figure out later.

If Google is using the "wisdom of the crowds" to determine how it arranges restaurant information in search results then in a lot of ways it believes professional reviews, and especially those from its Zagat franchise, trump user reviews. But when it gets down to displaying the text of diners' reviews, Google unfairly believes that its own consumer reviews are the fairest of them all.

The European regulatory probe of Google on several fronts is putting pressure on the U.S.'s FTC to jump into the fray after bowing out under less-than-stellar circumstances a few years ago. Still, don't expect any meaningful changes in Google's practices until the regulatory processes likely wind through the courts.

While one U.S. administration is getting ready to pack up things in the White House and Trump or Clinton hope to redecorate the place on their own, it could be an opportune time to sneak a Priceline-TripAdvisor or Google-TripAdvisor marriage past those sometimes-pesky antitrust regulators.

Visit Faroe Islands sees its lack of Google Street View as a hindrance to tourism, so the tourism bureau is making its own "Sheep View." Even if the technology doesn't work perfectly, the project itself is getting attention and might boost tourism anyway.

Asia-Pacific is expected to replace North America as the world's biggest online travel market next year. If your travel business operates online, it's time to take a good, hard, look at your Asia-Pacific strategy.

It seemingly takes Google forever to roll out new features in travel products such as Hotel Ads and Google Flights. But in light of all that A/B testing going on, Google will continue to take its own sweet time. Google is not beholden to anyone else's schedule. After all, it's Google.