Google expands Demand Gen with messaging ads, travel tools and AI video creation
Google's Demand Gen tools aim to shorten the path from discovery to conversion while making it easier to scale creative across campaigns.
Topic: Klook
Google can book your flights, hotels and dinner reservations using AI
Plus, Google added new travel AI tools with Canvas and ways to find deals.
How Google and Meta could disrupt travel discovery with AI
Here’s how AI from Google and Meta are influencing how consumers research and plan trips, reshaping marketing strategies.
Bing launches travel-oriented results pages and a trip-planning hub
The new features may make it even harder for OTAs to compete in the search results.
You can report indexing issues directly to Google now; Plus, in-person events back in 2022; Thursday’s daily brief
Google updates in-SERP travel planning tools as well
Google announces additional travel advisory notices in search and updates to its trip planning tools
The user-oriented feature updates will help Google maintain an edge over competitors in the online travel sector.
Reservations, AR navigation coming to Google Maps
The new features are aimed at making Maps a hub for travelers.
Google discontinues Trips mobile app
Users will be directed to use Search and Maps for their travel planning.
“Trips” consolidates Google’s travel offerings
Enables advertisers and marketers to reach travelers on desktop and mobile.
Google Assistant updates: Airline check-ins, hotel bookings, language translation and Maps
The business model for Google Assistant may be transactions over advertising.
Google puts focus on deals in hotel, flight search with latest updates
Google has rolled out a bunch of travel search features around finding the best hotel and flight based on price and location for your Thanksgiving weekend.
Bing Maps adds build and share your itinerary
Now in the US and the UK, you can plan your trips using Bing Maps with predefined itineraries that can be customized.
Google hotel search results testing ‘price insights’
Is the hotel you are about to book a good deal? Google can now tell you if you should book that hotel now.
Google adds new features & improves navigation for mobile hotel & flight searches
Aiming to make travel planning easier on a mobile device, Google is rolling out new tabs that let users switch between hotel, flight and trip details.
Bing Hotel Ads moving out of beta to general release with Koddi
The release opens up another paid channel for hotel marketing.
Google adds price tracking features to flight search, hotel search and Google Trips
Google adds several features to help searchers plan their getaways.
Google offers new hotel search filters, deal labels and airline price tracking
New tools are intended to respond to increase in mobile travel traffic and bookings.
With help from Alexa, Kayak debuts voice-enabled travel search on Amazon Echo
Users can search for flight, hotel and rental car information -- but not yet book.
With “Trips” app, will Google finally deliver a better travel experience?
New Google travel effort promises to bring together a range of tools and capabilities.
Destinations on Google delivers new travel planning experience for mobile users
A mobile search for a continent, country or state, along with the word "destination" or "vacation," will return a series of travel options.
Google City Searches Now Include Hotel Booking Info In Knowledge Graph
Average star rating and costs for city hotels are listed, along with "View hotels" link that delivers results page for hotels in the relevant city.
Google Upgrades Conversational Search On Its Mobile Apps
Conversational search on Google’s mobile apps got an upgrade today, as the company announced a few new voice commands that are specific to travel planning. Basically, the app is smarter about knowing where you are (at a hotel, for example), letting you complete actions by voice (i.e., making reservations via OpenTable), getting directions as part […]
Google Preps “Hotel View” Interior 360 Imagery
Call it Google “Hotel View.” According to the Associated Press (via Fox), Google is photographing hotel interiors as part of an effort to enhance its travel content. Perhaps even more interesting, says the article, is that the initiative is being run not under the umbrella of Google Maps but through Google Wallet. It’s not clear whether […]
Google Flight Search Takes Off Around The Globe
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 — […]
Flights, Hotels: Google Is Improving Its Travel Search Tools
Following its acquisition of travel software provider ITA, Google’s flight and hotel search products have offered isolated useful features but have largely failed to live up to Google’s promise of “innovation.” Consumers have mostly failed to notice Google’s travel innovations so far as well. There are now indications that Google’s travel sites and content are becoming more […]
Google Experiments With New Flight Explorer Feature
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, […]
Google Expands Flight Search Outside US To 500 Cities
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 […]
Groupon Buys Travel Search Site Uptake Mostly For Headcount
Uptake was an ambitious travel site that never quite broke through. It used social data and sentiment analysis to try and provide better travel discovery and decision support to its users. Originally called Kango, we wrote about the site in 2008 when it relaunched as Uptake. AllThingsD today reported that Uptake had been acquired by Groupon for […]
Google’s “Find Hotels By Travel Time” Offers Some Of That “Innovation” Google Was Talking About
Before Google was formally approved to buy travel software company ITA, the company argued that the acquisition would result in “innovation” for travelers and travel search users. Beyond the appearance of flight times/routes in search results we haven’t seen much “innovation” yet. Google’s new “find hotels by travel time” experiment is, however, an example of […]
Bing’s Travel Search & Kayak Favoritism Angers No One, While Google’s Gets Headline Attention From WSJ
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 […]
Official: Google’s New Travel Search OneBox
As we expected, Google officially announced the launch of their new flight onebox. The new travel onebox will show up when you search for flight related keywords with destinations. For example, [flights from new york to san francisco] or [flights from new york or [flights to new york]. They all work to five you an […]
Google Tests New Travel Search OneBox
SEOGadget noticed Google testing a new travel search OneBox interface. I suspect this is an early sign of the Google ITA integration, where Google purchased ITA, a travel software company. A typical Google travel search OneBox looks like this: The new travel OneBox offers a more detailed box of information with departing cities, airlines and […]
A New Search Engine for Hotel Rooms: Room 77 Launches
Like “seat guru for hotel rooms,” was my immediate thought; Room 77 is a search engine for hotel rooms. The site is creating and indexing data on hotels in the US and UK (and eventually around the world) that qualify with three stars and above. There’s also an iPhone app launching simultaneously today. There are […]
US Lawmakers Voice Concerns Over Google-ITA Deal
Add a few US legislators to the list of parties that are airing concerns over Google’s plan to purchase air travel software provider ITA. According to All Things Digital, two US House members and the Missouri Attorney General sent letters this week to Christine Varney, US Asst. Attorney General in the Antitrust Division, to express […]
Bing Releases Huge Set of Upgrades: Maps, Local, Mobile, Travel, Image Search
At the Bing Search event in San Francisco today, Microsoft unveiled a dizzying array of nearly across-the-board updates and improvements for Bing online and mobile apps. Some are minor and some are more significant. Most of these upgrades and feature enhancements will be available starting today or later this month. There are in fact so […]
Going Places? Bing Maps Optimizes Your Trips
Bing has added a new tool to its Bing Maps App Gallery — a tool that aims to optimize road trips when you have a lot of places to go at once. The app comes from OnTerra and is called the “RouteSavvy” Route Optimizer. The idea is that, when you have several places to go […]
Google In Discussions To Buy Travel Software Company, Will FTC Ground It?
Most people have never heard of ITA. However it’s the dominant company that provides reservations (inventory management) software and performs other functions for the travel industry. The company’s client list includes major airlines such as American and Continental as well as popular travel sites such as Kayak and Orbitz. ITA is foundational infrastructure for many […]
Bing Maps Adds Three New Apps For Travelers
If you’re traveling by car this summer, Bing has added three new tools to Bing Maps that should make your trip a little easier. Above is a screenshot of one of the three — a Distance Calculator tool. Let’s say, for example, that I’m thinking about driving to see U2’s concert in Oakland next month […]
Google May Buy Travel Software Provider ITA: Report
Bloomberg News is reporting that Google is in discussions on what could be a $1 billion buyout of ITA Software, a company that provides reservation/information systems used by many well-known travel industry companies. Bloomberg cites “three people familiar with the matter” in its article, two of whom speculate that ITA could want up to $1 […]
Kayak.com Releases Travel Search Data & Travel Index Tool
Somewhat quietly, last week Kayak posted a new feature that opens up access to their search data using Kayak Trends. A key feature of Kayak Trend data is the KAYAK Travel Index™, an a statistical model that provides a measure of travel demand from analysis of searches on KAYAK sites, and aligns that with average […]