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Google travel? Who cares

April 20, 2006

The hottest rumor making the rounds is that Google plans to build a travel site, probably with online agency Orbitz.

It is based on a lone job posting and a little speculation on the part of the reporter, which is hardly a smoking gun. Then again, it is Google, a company everyone likes to speculate about.

So Google and Orbitz build a new travel vertical. So what?

Maybe Google hasn’t gotten the memo that online travel is actually consolidating into fewer players. But even if this materializes (and barring a knock-your-socks-off, quantum leap in a booking interface) I don’t see the big deal.

Google competitors, such as Yahoo! and MSN already have well-developed travel portals. This just looks like a “me-too” move.

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2 comments

  • Eddie

    But that’s just it, don’t you see? Google has achieved its success not by creating new products or technologies, but by taking existing ones and making them user-friendly and easy to use. There were plenty of search engines before Google came along, but they had poor, often fraudulent, results, banner ads and popups, and cluttered UIs. Google changed all that in the search engine space, and if they’re aiming to do the same thing for travel sites, I’m all for it.

  • http://rashislate.blogspot.com Jaime

    Maybe they saw Bing’s travel results and figured out that there is potential to improve on the current offerings. I’m sure you have already looked at Bing travel. It’s very good.

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