On the cusp of the summer travel season, AdGooroo has taken a look at the state of paid search in the travel sector in the U.S. The company has found that, on the whole, paid search expenditures have been trending down since 2011. Spend fell 19% from January through April of this year compared to last year. That follows an 11% drop during the same period from 2012 to 2011. The downward trends hold through the summer months. AdGooroo suspects the decline in ad spend since 2011 is due in large part to the launches of Google Flight Search and Google Hotel Finder that year. The actual number o [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEM | Google: AdWords | Google: Flight Search | Google: Travel Search | Stats: Search Behavior

Don't want your content to be included in many of Google's vertical search services, such as Google Shopping or Google+ Local? Google's got a new tool for that, a result of its agreement earlier this year with the US Federal Trade Commission over anti-trust charges. Announced on the Google Webmaster Central Blog, the new tool is located within Google Webmaster Central and allows publishers to keep their content out of: Google Shopping Google+ Local Google Flights Google Hotels Google Advisor (financial product search) Oddly, several of these services only allow you to be inc [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEO | Google: Advisor | Google: Antitrust | Google: Flight Search | Google: Maps & Local | Google: Place Pages | Google: Product Search | Google: SEO | Google: Travel Search | Google: Webmaster Central | Top News

Google's flight search tool had been limited to a few markets in the US. As such, it was of limited value. But last week, the company expanded flight search internationally to include 500 airports outside the US. (See postscript below below for correction.) Flight search can also be used by people in other countries -- UK, France, Italy, Spain or the Netherlands -- to do research and initiate trip planning. In addition, Flight Search now comes in eight languages: English, French, Italian, Spanish, Basque, Catalan, Galician and Dutch and features local currency. Perhaps the feature th [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Industry | Features: Analysis | Google: Antitrust | Google: Critics | Google: Flight Search | Top News

Google is trying out a new travel search tool that seems to be aimed primarily at casual travelers that are as concerned about price as they are about a destination. It's called Flight Explorer and it doesn't appear to be reachable yet via Google's regular flight search tool at google.com/flights. As best I can tell, The Next Web was first to report on the new feature this afternoon. It looks like the most fully realized implementation of the vast data that Google has access to via its ITA Software purchase two years ago. Flight Explorer auto-detects your location and presents several de [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Consumer | Google: Flight Search

Google Flight Search is taking off to international destinations. Starting today users can search for flights to 500 airports outside the US. Google hasn't provided a comprehensive list of destinations, but most European and Asian cities I searched for were available. It's not clear how well flight search is doing or whether people are using it instead of some of the established travel sites and search engines. Right now the PC version of Flight Search is more challenging to use than some of its rivals -- Kayak for example. The mobile and iPad versions of Google Flight Search are simpler [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Consumer | Google: Flight Search | Search Engines: Travel Search Engines

Google has been improving its flight and hotel search results over the past few months, adding capabilities and polishing the overall experience. In accordance with that "iterative" approach Google announced today that flight search will now be available on mobile devices (browser only). To trigger the verticalized results, you need to specify that you want to see flights from location A to location B (US only right now). You then get outbound and return date fields, with lists of airlines and prices. If you click through to "more Google flight search results" there's a richer presentation [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Mobile | Google: Flight Search | Google: Mobile | Search Engines: Travel Search Engines

You can imagine my surprise when I saw my local airport -- Pasco (PSC) -- showing up in Google's flight search feature. Don't get me wrong; I love this airport … from car to gate in less than 10 minutes just can't be beat. But that's the point: It's a pretty small airport and Google's flight search has been limited to much bigger cities since its launch in September. Not anymore. Google is remaining tightlipped about exact numbers, but a spokesperson did confirm for us via email that "since launch we've more than doubled the number of domestic (i.e., U.S.) routes available in the feat [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Consumer | Google: Flight Search | Search Engines: Travel Search Engines

Bing's not-so-newest push into online travel hasn't begun to roil the industry, the latest example of where if Bing does something, no one cares, but if Google does it, it's time for a Wall Street Journal story examining the potential evilness of the move. In case you missed it, the Wall Street Journal has a story out about how Google's travel results -- added in September, rather than December as the story says, have upset (as you'd expect) rival travel search engines such as Kayak, Expedia and Orbitz. Bing: Pushing Travel Search Against Google Since 2009 You have to get midway down int [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Industry | Features: Analysis | Google: Antitrust | Google: Critics | Google: Flight Search | Google: Travel Search | Microsoft: Bing Travel | Search Engines: Travel Search Engines | Top News