Google Revamps Mobile Travel Search Results, Almost Making Web Results Irrelevant

Google has quietly revamped the mobile user interface for travel-related searches. The result of the change makes it really hard to get to the organic web results once you click on the “more destinations” button. Let me walk you through the experience.

You start off by searching for something like [where to go in russia]:

Google then shows you a couple of destinations with a big blue arrow to show more. So you click that, and it expands into many more locations. Once you are there, there is no way to get back to the web search results without clicking back or redoing your search. You can also see the prices for flights and hotels in the area.

You are also given the option to filter by dates, interests or price, which has been in travel search already for some time now:

When you click into a destination, you are given the nice-looking mobile knowledge graph card of the destination:

As you scroll through it, you are then given travel ads for flight options through Google Flight search, hotels through Google Hotel search and restaurants through Google Local results:

Then towards the bottom of the knowledge graph card, all the way at the end in a small grayish font, you have a link to “see web results.”

Don’t get me wrong; this is an incredibly nice user experience for those looking to travel. But those optimizing for travel search might not like the new mobile experience.

Postscript: This is an experimental feature by Google which may change over time.