Google has acquired Frommer's travel guides from publisher John Wiley & Sons for an undisclosed price. This raises concerns that Google will favor its own travel content over competitors in search results. Consumer groups like Consumer Watchdog and FairSearch.org, whose members include TripAdvisor and Expedia, are calling on regulators to scrutinize the acquisition. They argue that Google could use its dominance in search to steer users to its own travel pages rather than competitors, harming the online travel industry. Companies like Yelp have also accused Google of favoring its own content and services in the past. The deal may lead to additional antitrust pressure on Google to ensure it does not unfairly preference its own travel content in search.
A 360˚ analysis of the most important search terms, trends and benchmarking data in the online Cruise sector. This report provides an exclusive snapshot of the online Search and Social Media market for your sector right now. From the size of your potential audience to the top performing companies, it’s all here.
Product focus: Brand, Cruise Liners, Destinations, Generics
Greenlight's Consumer Electronics Sector Report, May 2013, Issue 1Greenlight Digital
A 360˚ analysis of the most important search terms, trends and benchmarking data in the consumer electronics sector. This report provides an exclusive snapshot of the online search market for your sector right now. From the size of your potential audience to the top performing companies, it’s all here.
Product focus: Computing, TV & Entertainment, Small Kitchen Appliances, Large Kitchen Appliances
Greenlight's Magazine: Search & Social Media Survey EditionGreenlight Digital
Read our Search and Social Media Survey Edition which focuses on the results of our 2012 survey, which asked 500 internet users for their views on Mobile, Facebook Advertising, Fan Acquisition and searching online in multiple languages.
As 2012 comes to an end, we look at what 2013 holds for the Search industry. Our directors provide insights into the advancements that can be expected in SEO, PPC and Social Media, whilst Google highlights what to expect from the 2013 consumer.
A 360˚ analysis of the most important search terms, trends and benchmarking data in the online Cruise sector. This report provides an exclusive snapshot of the online Search and Social Media market for your sector right now. From the size of your potential audience to the top performing companies, it’s all here.
Product focus: Brand, Cruise Liners, Destinations, Generics
Greenlight's Consumer Electronics Sector Report, May 2013, Issue 1Greenlight Digital
A 360˚ analysis of the most important search terms, trends and benchmarking data in the consumer electronics sector. This report provides an exclusive snapshot of the online search market for your sector right now. From the size of your potential audience to the top performing companies, it’s all here.
Product focus: Computing, TV & Entertainment, Small Kitchen Appliances, Large Kitchen Appliances
Greenlight's Magazine: Search & Social Media Survey EditionGreenlight Digital
Read our Search and Social Media Survey Edition which focuses on the results of our 2012 survey, which asked 500 internet users for their views on Mobile, Facebook Advertising, Fan Acquisition and searching online in multiple languages.
As 2012 comes to an end, we look at what 2013 holds for the Search industry. Our directors provide insights into the advancements that can be expected in SEO, PPC and Social Media, whilst Google highlights what to expect from the 2013 consumer.
The Busy Marketer's Guide to Image Rights ManagementFlashStock
Let's face it: you're busy, but you still need stunning, authentic imagery for your channels that is completely worry-free. This guide explains everything you need to know about using content properly and avoiding legal headaches.
Marketing to the Millennials: Connect & Engage the Younger GenerationLynn Morton
Learn how social media conversations are happening around brands across the globe & how these brands highlight, showcase, respond & inspire their customers. Learn how to listen and navigate through any rough waters.
Rush transcript, directly off the feed. (see the disclaimer) However, the only fee, full accounting you'll find of the Google antitrust Senate hearing without sitting to watch the whole thing.
Has your business ever received a bad review online?
Are you aware of all of the mentions being made about you and your company online?
Do you want to know how to and be able to respond to remarks being made online both good & bad?
Has your business been posted to a derogatory site such as your business sucks.com?
In business today, you're only as good as your reputation both on and offline. These days it is imperative you monitor and manage what is being said about you online as more than 90% of the public starts to make their daily decisions, from where to eat, where to stay, where to buy, and where to go to from information they find online.
The conversations about you and your business are happening online. Are you taking part?
This is the slideshow you have to view. We'll show you strategies and steps to take to monitor, protect, repair, and recover your online reputation, let us show you how:
The Busy Marketer's Guide to Image Rights ManagementFlashStock
Let's face it: you're busy, but you still need stunning, authentic imagery for your channels that is completely worry-free. This guide explains everything you need to know about using content properly and avoiding legal headaches.
Marketing to the Millennials: Connect & Engage the Younger GenerationLynn Morton
Learn how social media conversations are happening around brands across the globe & how these brands highlight, showcase, respond & inspire their customers. Learn how to listen and navigate through any rough waters.
Rush transcript, directly off the feed. (see the disclaimer) However, the only fee, full accounting you'll find of the Google antitrust Senate hearing without sitting to watch the whole thing.
Has your business ever received a bad review online?
Are you aware of all of the mentions being made about you and your company online?
Do you want to know how to and be able to respond to remarks being made online both good & bad?
Has your business been posted to a derogatory site such as your business sucks.com?
In business today, you're only as good as your reputation both on and offline. These days it is imperative you monitor and manage what is being said about you online as more than 90% of the public starts to make their daily decisions, from where to eat, where to stay, where to buy, and where to go to from information they find online.
The conversations about you and your business are happening online. Are you taking part?
This is the slideshow you have to view. We'll show you strategies and steps to take to monitor, protect, repair, and recover your online reputation, let us show you how:
http://www.corporate-ethics.org
BRI-1004
-2-
the brutal suppression of demonstrators in China in June 1989. The same search on Google.cn
provided a much smaller list and included pictures of a smiling couple in the square.2
The decision to develop Google.cn was complicated. In the words of Elliot Schrage,
Google’s vice president of Global Communications and Public Affairs:
[Google, Inc., faced a choice to] compromise our mission by failing to serve our
users in China or compromise our mission by entering China and complying with
Chinese laws that require us to censor search results.… Based on what we know
today and what we see in China, we believe our decision to launch the Google.cn
service in addition to our Google.com service is a reasonable one, better for
Chinese users and better for Google.… Self-censorship, like that which we are
now required to perform in China, is something that conflicts deeply with our core
principles.… This was not something we did enthusiastically or something that
we’re proud of at all.3
MacLean knew that he was perfectly prepared for his current position as director of
International Business. After earning a computer-science degree, MacLean had traveled
extensively, implementing information systems with an IT consulting firm. He was well-versed
in the technical and cultural components of this current project. It was his first job after earning
an MBA. He had worked very hard as a summer intern to get his foot in the door at Google, Inc.,
and landed a job offer in his second year of the MBA program. He had been working at Google
for 13 months and was starting to worry about his job security. Within the organization, he did
not have enough political capital to weather a storm of critiques.
The congressional hearing had planted seeds of doubt in MacLean’s head about the
Google in China decision. Was Google endorsing censorship by conforming to the Chinese
authorities’ rules? Was Google acting as a tool for the government? Were Chinese citizens better
off after Google’s decision to enter China with Google.cn? MacLean was starting to question
whether the decision went against their stated mission of organizing the world’s information and
making it universally accessible and useful.4
Google’s top leadership had left open the door for revising their strategy by always
reminding reporters and those in the company that the decision was made based on the
information currently available. The company was not afraid to revisit previous decisions.
MacLean had only one day before attending a meeting where he would be queried on the
development and implementation of Google’s China strategy and asked for his suggestions for
future courses of action. The Senate hearing had attracted a lively audience and had generated
vigorous debate. There was a lot of pressure to act, but MacLean’s instinct was to stick by his
.
THIS PRESENTATION IS ALL ABOUT GOOGLE. THIS PRESENTATION GIVES YOU THE GLIMPSE OF GOOGLE FROM IT'S PAST TO PRESENT .
___________________________________________________
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The Power of Google: A Review of the 2011 Senate Subcommittee HearingShanna Kurpe
Internet Marketers and business professionals are watching closely as the U.S. Senate Subcommittee for Antitrust, Competition Policy and Consumer Rights seeks to answer the hard question, "Is Google a Monopoly?". In this presentation, Shanna Kurpe explains the hearing, introduces key players, and poses thoughtful questions about the Internet Law and Search Engine Marketing.
Running head GOOGLE MANAGMENT1GOOGLE MANAGMENT8GOOGLE M.docxjeanettehully
Running head: GOOGLE MANAGMENT
1
GOOGLE MANAGMENT
8
GOOGLE MANAGEMENT
Author Name(s), First M. Last, Omit Titles and Degrees
Institutional Affiliation(s)
Table of Contents
Introduction to the company3
Who founded Google?4
How is Google funded?4
History of Company4
What impact has the brand had within its category?5
How have you differentiated yourself from your competitors?5
Mission of company5
Best practice6
Best practice into concepts8
It gives value to work8
Optimize efforts through analytical tools8
How could another organization adopt this best practice?9
Boosts flexibility at work10
Conclusion10
Introduction to the company
Google LLC is a US international technology organization that focusses on Internet-related products and services, which contain search engines, online marketing technologies, cloud computing, hardware, and software. The purpose of Google management is to organize all the information in the world and create it nearby and beneficial to everyone (Shane, & Wakabayashi, 2018).
The company Google was born as a search engine for more information on the web. Its main characteristic with respect to its competitors was its advanced system of analysis of relations between pages, which allowed a higher ranking or ranking. Google's next step was to use this information to introduce advertising and manipulate the ranking based on the payment for such advertising. The enormous benefits that the company achieves are reinvested in new services and new policies that have strengthened the individual-segmentation relationship, reaching perfect segmentation (Mingers, & Lipitakis, 2010).
Google is an American multinational company focusing on products and services linked to the Internet, electronic devices, software and other expertise. Google's key product is the Internet content search engine of the similar name, although it also provides other services such as an email service called Gmail, its Google Earth map and Google Maps service, the YouTube video website, others Web values such as Google News or Google Books, the Google Chrome web browser, the Google+ social network. It provides an easy and quick way to find info on the web, by access to a catalogue of over 8,168 million web pages. As said by the Google company, currently replies to above 200 million queries a day (Verma, et.al. 2015, April).
Who founded Google?
The American of Larry Page and the Russian Sergey Brin , are the founders of this magnificent company. In 1995, Page had finished his studies at the University of Michigan and went to do his graduate degree at Stanford University, California. In this same university he meets Brin, 21, who was in charge of teaching him the campus (Verma, et.al. 2015, April).How is Google funded?
Faced with the great and rapid growth, in the year 2000, Google develops what today gives them the highest proportion of their profits: Google Adwords. Which is a Digital Marketing strategy that is based on making money throu ...
Antarctica- Icy wilderness of extremes and wondertahreemzahra82
In this presentation, we delve into the captivating realm of Antarctica, Earth's southernmost continent. This icy wilderness stands as a testament to extremes, with record-breaking cold temperatures and vast expanses of pristine ice. Antarctica's landscape is dominated by towering glaciers, colossal icebergs, and expansive ice shelves. Yet, amidst this frozen expanse, a rich tapestry of unique wildlife thrives, including penguins, seals, and seabirds, all finely attuned to survive in this harsh environment. Beyond its natural wonders, Antarctica also serves as a vital hub for scientific exploration, providing invaluable insights into climate change and the Earth's history
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Hidden Gems of Europe - DISCOVERING THE CONTINENT'S BEST-KEPT SECRETSKamil Uğraş TÜRKOĞLU
Europe, continent rich in history, culture, and natural beauty, is often synonymous with famous cities like Paris, Rome, and London. These iconic destinations attract millions of tourists every year, captivating them with their renowned landmarks, vibrant culture, and bustling urban life. However, beyond these well-trodden paths lie countless hidden gems waiting to be discovered. These lesser-known destinations offer unique experiences, authentic encounters, and breathtaking landscapes that often surpass the allure of their famous counterparts.
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1. MoContent,MoProblems:Google’sFrommer’sAcquisitionCouldLeadToAdditionalAntitrustScrutiny
Monday, August 13th, 2012
―There is a fundamental conflict between being a search provider and a content provider,‖
said John M. Simpson, Consumer Watchdog’s Privacy Project Director. ―As Google has
increased its content and services, it has unfairly favored them in its search results and
damaged competitors.‖ The deal, says Simpson, means ―Google executives are thumbing
their noses at regulators‖ and ―if it is allowed with conditions, there is absolutely no reason
to believe the Internet giant will live up to it’s word.‖
The FairSearch.org group, which counts TripAdvisor, Expedia, Kayak and Microsoft
among its members, also just issued a statement in which it ―encourages government
officials to look closely at its ability to use its dominance in search and search advertising
to steer users away from competitors in order to keep users on Google’s own pages
longer, and the potentially devastating effects that could have on the online economy.‖
It’s worth noting that a number of companies – including some that could be considered to
be Frommer’s competitors – have accused Google of highlighting its own content over
that of its competitors in its search results over the last few years. Last year, for example,
Yelp CEO Jeremy Stoppelman told the Senate Judiciary Committee that he believes
Google has abused its market dominance in search. Earlier this year, Nextag CEO Jeffrey
Katz, one of Google’s most outspoken critics, wrote an op-ed piece in the WSJ in which
he noted that the company ―needs to become more transparent about when advertisers
get better placement in search results and when a result is a Google-owned property.‖
With more of its own content to highlight on Google Search, chances are Google will
indeed face additional pressure from antitrust regulators to ensure that it doesn’t give
preference to its own content on its search results pages. Google, of course, argues that it
simply tries to provide the best search results for its users but chances are that the
executives over at Rough Guides, Fodor’s and Lonely Planet would have preferred to see
Google stay out of the travel content business.
http://techcrunch.com/2012/08/13/google-frommers-antitrust/
Every company's dream is to become the world's most dominant company. A startup's goal is to survive. A
small-to-medium sized company's goal is to become a large company. A large company's goal is to become the
world's largest company and so on.
Whenever a large company has a lot of power, they will always try to stop the startups and small-to-medium
companies from becoming larger ones. You can look back at history and find many instances of this theory, for
e.g. Microsoft did this to Netscape, Google did this to Yelp/Dropbox, Facebook did it to Friendfeed/App.net,
2. Twitter did it to Tinyurl/Twitpic etc. They can either do this by acquisition (legal), direct competition (legal) or by
abusing their power of monopoly in their existing businesses (illegal).
However, the larger companies (as of now) have also faced these exact same hurdles when they were trying to
get bigger. That's how capitalism works. As Bill Gates famously said: "Life is unfair, get used to it".
Google Buys Frommer’s Travel Guides in Yet Another
Contested Move as a Content Publisher
Miranda Miller, August 21, 2012
Google acquired Frommer‘s brand of travel guides from Wiley & Sons last week, in a
dealreportedly worth $23 million. While the actual acquisition is small by Google‘s
standards, it is another big indicator Google plans to continue building their business as a
publisher of unique content.
Wiley‘s announcement of the sale read, ―On August 10, 2012, Wiley entered into a
definitive agreement to sell all of its travel assets, including all of its interests in the
Frommer's brand, to Google.‖
―The Frommer‘s team and the quality and scope of their content will be a great addition to
the Zagat team,‘‘ a Google rep told the Financial Post. ―We can‘t wait to start working with
them on our goal to provide a review for every relevant place in the world.‖
Yelp Stock Down in Light of Google-Frommer Acquisition
At one point, Frommer‘s were the premier travel guides; that is, until Lonely Planet came
along to dominate the scene. Google reportedly plans to combine Frommer‘s with their
Zagat reviews. Last year, Google acquired Zagat and earlier this summer, integrated
Zagat reviews with the merged Google+ Pages/Places.
Google‘s foray into publishing local reviews is bad news for Yelp, whose stock plummeted
after the announcement. Yelp was sitting at $20.17 a share as of this writing, substantially
down from their 52-week high of $31.96. Just before Google announced the Frommer‘s
deal, Yelp was trading at over $26.
Google used to pay Yelp in order to use their reviews on Google Maps. That ended when
Yelp became unhappy with what they said was Google‘s practice of promoting their own
pages over those of others.
Google actually tried to buy Yelp in 2009, though the deal didn‘t go through. By
September 2011,Yelp was testifying against Googlein the Senate Subcommittee on
Antitrust, Competition Policy and Consumer Rights.
3. Consumer Watchdog, FairSearch.org Asking for FTC Intervention
Yelp aren‘t the only ones unhappy about the Frommer‘s deal. Consumer Watchdog is
calling on the FTC to block the acquisition.
"There is a fundamental conflict between being a search provider and a content provider,‖
Consumer Watchdog Privacy Project Director John Simpson told The Inquirer. ―As
Google has increased its content and services, it has unfairly favoured them in its search
results and damaged competitors. It makes absolutely no sense to approve this deal.‖
FairSearch.org, a group of companies including Microsoft, Expedia, and TripAdvisor,
among others, released a blog post about Google‘s latest acquisition. It read, in part:
―As Google expands beyond general search into content development in key search
verticals, FairSearch.org encourages government officials to look closely at its ability to
use its dominance in search and search advertising to steer users away from competitors
in order to keep users on Google‘s own pages longer, and the potentially devastating
effects that could have on the online economy.‖
Can Google Do Fair Search and Create Content?
Forbes staff writer Jeff Bercovici doesn‘t think it‘s even a question whether Google has
become a media empire. He takes a stab at what Google will do with Frommer‘s in a
recent article:
―...the obvious guess is that Google will Zagat-ize Frommer‘s, de-emphasizing
professionally-produced content in favor of user-gen stuff, which is both cheaper to
produce and more in keeping with its traditional competencies. For the moment, however,
Google is, at least in a small way, unarguably a media company.‖
This raises the obvious question, he says; one that has been on the minds of many as
complaint after complaint has rolled into the FTC: ―How long can Google be a fair arbiter
of all the world‘s information when it increasingly has information of its own that it wants to
promote?‖
The New York Times published previously unpublished quotes from Eric Schmidt, who
was CEO at the time he is reported to have given the interview in 2010. According to the
NYT, Schmidt said Google is ―careful to define a line where we don‘t cross into content‖
and wanted to remain a ―neutral platform for content and applications.‖
That line seems to blur more every day. Whether the FTC will heed the warnings of
groups like Consumer Watchdog and FairSearch.org remains to be seen. For now,
companies like Yelp and TripAdvisor have every reason to feel threatened, as the giant of
the web encroaches further into their business model.
4. http://searchenginewatch.com/article/2199939/Google-Buys-Frommers-Travel-Guid
es-in-Yet-Another-Contested-Move-as-a-Content-Publisher
With Frommer's, Google Taps Gurus
By AMIR EFRATI And JEFFREY A. TRACHTENBERG
Updated August 14, 2012, 3:54 a.m. ET
Google Inc. GOOG +0.50% for years swore it wasn't interested in creating
content, choosing instead to point people to information on the Web.
Google also championed the vox populi, letting crowd-sourced opinions
bubble to the top when users search for answers online.
Slowly, though, the experts have been moving up in Google's eyes, and
its business.
Google is buying the Frommer's brand of travel guides from publishing house John Wiley &
Sons for an undisclosed price, Jeffrey Trachtenberg reports on digits.
On Monday, Google said it is acquiring the Frommer's travel-guide
business in a bid to attract more advertising dollars tied to online-travel
bookings and local-business information. Google is buying Frommer's
from publisher John Wiley & Sons Inc. JWB +0.67%
Google paid around $25 million for Frommer's, according to a person
briefed on the deal, which hasn't yet closed. But the deal is more
significant for its strategy than its price tag.
By owning Frommer's travel-guide content and showing it in search
results, Google could sell travel-related ads against it and provide more
tools for people to book travel arrangements.
The Frommer's deal follows Google's 2011 acquisition of Zagat Survey,
whose reviews and ratings of millions of businesses have since been
incorporated into Google+ local-business listings. Google said Monday
that the Frommer's brand would be melded with the Zagat brand.
Frommer's data about local businesses around the world could boost the
Google+ business listings—where both Zagat ratings and individual
customer reviews are displayed—and Google Maps.
5. With Zagat and Frommer's, Google is betting it can become a trusted
guide for travel and local-business information by using expert ratings
and aggregating online comments from thousands of customers, the way
Yelp.com and TripAdvisor.com do.
Frommer's is more evidence that Google has grown fonder of
professionally produced content. There are other examples: It recently
took an equity stake in Machinima Inc., which creates video content
mainly for Google's YouTube video site.
A Google spokeswoman declined to comment.
In addition, Google is investing more than $350 million to help create and
market professional-grade videos for YouTube, located on special
"channels," as the site upgrades its offerings from the simple
user-generated videos of its roots.
A separate content effort, though—Google's Knol online encyclopedia,
which took contributions from experts—wound down this year as Google
CEO Larry Page killed off some underperforming services.
In addition to owning content, Google also is trying to become "vertically
integrated" in terms of mobile devices. Google's strategy for years was to
allow manufacturers to use its free Android operating software, helping
them compete with Apple Inc. gadgets and ensuring that its search
engine would be built into the devices. But Google recently bought
handset maker Motorola Mobility and has embarked on an effort to build
its own mobile devices.
The Frommer's deal could put Google at odds with other website
publishers. In recent years, Google has expanded its array of services
6. that seek to directly answer users' queries, departing from its original
strategy of sending them quickly to the most relevant site. For example,
people who search for local-business information now often see links to
Google+ business listings—and Zagat ratings—in the search-engine
results above other sites like Yelp.
Google—and its ambitions to capture more online ads related to travel
and local-business information—are under scrutiny by antitrust
authorities, who are looking into allegations that the company directs its
search-engine users to its Google+ business listings, undermining travel
and online-review sites such as TripAdvisor and Yelp. The Frommer's
deal is too small to trigger an automatic review by antitrust authorities.
Google has denied any anticompetitive practices and has repeatedly said
it creates its services to benefit users, rather than other websites. Some
U.S. courts have agreed with Google's assertion that its search-engine
results are a kind of opinion that is protected by free-speech rights.
Stephen Kaufer, the CEO of TripAdvisor Inc., TRIP -0.80% said Monday,
"It is puzzling to us that Google is going backwards to the opinion of
one—a writer—when TripAdvisor is proof that travelers like the wisdom of
crowds" and their social-network friends.
Mr. Kaufer, who has spoken out about Google's practice of pointing users
to Google-owned sites, added: "I absolutely worry that Google will
preference Frommer's content above organic search results to the
detriment of the users' experience and the enrichment of Google."
Yelp Inc. YELP +1.43% declined to comment.
TripAdvisor shares fell 4.6% in Monday trading; Yelp's stock dropped
7.7%.
Google in 2010 made its first big foray into the travel industry by acquiring
flight-data company ITA Software, which powers the flight-booking tools
of numerous websites.
Last year Google launched its own flight-booking service.
7. Google generates about $2 billion to $3 billion per year from selling
travel-related ads on its search engine and hotel- and flight-booking
service, with travel sites Expedia Inc. EXPE -0.23% and Priceline Inc. being
among the top advertisers, according to Herman Leung, a stock analyst
at Susquehanna International Group LLP.
The U.S.-based leisure-travel industry spent $2.56 billion on online
advertising last year, up 40.6% from a year earlier, according to research
firm eMarketer Inc. Last year U.S.-based travelers spent more than $100
billion to book trips online, a figure that is expected to grow by around
10% annually, eMarketer said.
Google said Monday it hasn't yet decided whether the Frommer's
guidebooks will continue to be published in print or whether they will
eventually migrate entirely to online.
Flight Deck
Google's travel and content acquisitions
July 2010: Announced acquisition of flight information software company ITA Software
for $700 million. Last year Google launched its own flight-booking service.
Sept. 2011: Purchased Zagat review guides for $151 million. Reviews have since
been incorporated into Google+ local-business listings.
Aug. 2012: Announced acquisition of the Frommer's travel-guide business, paying
less than $66 million.
"Our commitment is to keep things as they are today and once we
combine operations, we'll know better what the future looks like," said
Bernardo Hernandez, a director of product management within Google's
Zagat unit.
"Consumers need fresh, accurate information," Mr. Hernandez said.
"When you add information you can trust to phone numbers and
addresses as part of the Google search experience, it enables users to
convert their intentions into actions," meaning to book travel online.
Wiley, which has owned Frommer's since 2001, said it intended to sell
the brand in March as it no longer aligned with its long-term strategies.
Frommer's dates back to 1957, when Arthur Frommer, founder of the
Frommer's series, published "Europe on Five Dollars a Day."
8. Bill Newlin, publisher of Avalon Travel, an imprint of the Perseus Books
Group that publishes travel expert Rick Steves and the Moon branded
guides, said he wasn't worried about Frommer's titles getting an unfair
advantage in Web search.
"There's only one way to spell Rick Steves," he said.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390444772404577587131075164366.
html
How Google’s Acquisition of Frommer’s Will Shake the Travel Industry
Posted by Kathryn Armson & Andrew Berriz (@andrewberriz) / August 20, 2012 3:23 pm
The travel industry‘s visibility in search changed dramatically last week. As of last Monday
morning, Google has purchased Frommer‘s Travel Guides. CM‘ers across our office rejoiced
realizing just how big of an impact this buyout could have on the traveler‘s experience.
In 2011, 69 percent of users looking for travel related information went to the search engines to
find online content. Currently controlling 66.8% of all U.S. searches, we see that when
Google makes a change, the majority of online users have no choice but to follow.
With Google‘s most recent acquisition of Frommer‘s the travel industry may be on the
threshold of big changes. How will these changes affect your travel company‘s search
rankings and website performance?
Google monopolizes the traveler’s journey
Over the past several years Google has begun expanding its capabilities beyond those of a
standard search engine. When Google was originally founded, their goal was to accurately
direct users to the websites most relevant to their needs. The idea was for a user to spend as
little time on the Google site as possible. A searcher would type in their search query, and in
the perfect scenario would be directed to the most relevant content to their query without ever
having to scroll down the page.
However, as Google expanded their technology and began to monetize on-site
advertisements and searcher behavioral research it seems the goal was now to keep users on
Google owned properties as long as possible. Google recently rolled out ‗knowledge graphs‘,
grids powered by rich-snippets that appear on the Google search results pages for
informational-based search queries.
9. The ink is still drying on the contract, and it is unclear exactly how this latest acquisition will
affect websites competing in the travel industry. However, there are a few things your
company can do to prepare yourself for any impending changes Google may release.
What You Can Do to Prepare
1. Keep Users at Center
The number one action you can take to protect your site from being severely affected by any
future Google changes is to always aim to provide value to your users. Sites like Pinterest
have shown us that an intuitive user interface, and wealth of valuable content is always more
effective at driving traffic than a flashy, complex site. Another great example of a site that aims
to satisfy the user instead of Google is Twitter. The interface is simple, with only a few
capabilities, but the wealth of content related to celebrities, top news, local events and more is
delivered directly to the user in a timely fashion.
It‘s easy to lose sight of the end user, and try to find the ―silver bullet‖ that will quickly propel
your site to fame in that #1 search result spot. However, past Google updates (Panda being a
prime example) have shown that sites trying to manipulate the algorithm, social networking
sites or content schemes for quick wins will ultimately fail. Provide your users with the
information they are looking for in an easy-to-navigate site will more quickly build user loyalty
drive traffic flow to your site. Investing the time and money upfront to truly understand your
consumer and their online behaviors is always the best strategy.
2. Embrace All SEO Tools
Sites in the travel industry should also utilize rich snippets, and basic marketing skills to
make their sites more visible and appealing in the search results pages. Be sure all Title
Tags and Meta Descriptions on your pages are optimized, not just for the search engines, but
to fully inform users and help increase click-though rate. Embracing recent technology, such
as Schema.org, to transform your regular search engine results into interactive rich snippets,
with imagery, videos and product information embedded right into the search results page can
help your site stand out, as well.
3. A Holistic Support Strategy
Finally, travel sites should work to embrace many different facets of vertical search and
online advertisement. If your site relies solely on SEO performance, one big change from
Google and you may see your site‘s traffic drop severely. Aim to produce content that performs
well in image search, news search, and blog search, while also building up a large user base
on social media sites and driving traffic through paid media.
Final Thoughts – The Scramble for Quality Travel Content
The online travel marketplace is infamous for a high “look-to-book ratio” – an astounding
4,500 to 1 – which basically says travelers are doing a lot of searching, researching, and
10. comparing before selecting a destination and booking their vacations. The question for traveler
markets is how to capture and convert those travel shoppers.
The buyout of Frommer‘s and potentially heightened prominence of their travel content in
search results accentuates the call to arms for travel brands to up their game. Sheepishly
cowering to the massive players cannot be your answer. As the sheer quantity of travel-related
content grows, travel brands are hustling to develop more compelling content to improve
search visibility. Boldly claim a distinctive voice among the crowds to hold an essential role.
Share content about the local culture and cuisine, for example, in addition to speaking about
your brand. If they can‘t find the information anywhere else, you‘l live to tell the tale of another
day in this competitive industry.
http://experiencematters.criticalmass.com/2012/08/20/how-google%E2%80%99s-ac
quisition-of-frommer%E2%80%99s-will-shake-the-travel-industry/
WHY IT WOULD BE A MISTAKE FOR GOOGLE TO KILL FROMMER’S TRAVEL GUIDES
By buying a travel guidebook publisher solely to bolster its local search content, Google risks both
straddling itself with an unprofitable albatross and missing out on a way to differentiate itself from its
rivals.
Google’s recent acquisition of Frommer’s has given rise to much comment about the ―real‖ intentions of
the Big G and what this means for other travel publishers. While it’s less entertaining than some of the
theories floating around, for time being I’m willing to accept their stated rationale at face value: just
another stepping stone to ―provide a review for every relevant place in the world―, and thus a tactical
move to bolster local coverage for the ailing Google+.
There are, however, two fundamental problems with the purchase and this goal that do not seem to have
garnered much attention.
Frommer’s claims ―4,500 destinations, 50,000 images and 300,000 events―, but they leave unsaid the
source of every one of those bits of data: their own printed guidebooks. Google thus has an unpalatable
array of choices:
1. Keep producing printed guidebooks and digitizing the incoming content as usual. This is clearly
Google’s starting point, as they will be retaining Frommer’s print staff, but it’s also almost certainly
a money-losing proposition: given the fire sale price of barely over 1x revenue, there’s no way the
books are making money. With the overall travel guidebook market declining by 10% year and the
new owner focused on entirely different things, a turnaround seems fanciful. Google will thus be
looking to jettison them as soon as it can, which leads us to the next option:
2. Stop print production, but keep the authors and editors around producing travel guides in digital
form. Alas, this would only exacerbate the losses, as e-book and app sales make up only a small
11. fraction of printed book sales and the actual printing is only a fraction of the cost of book production.
This option seems thus very unlikely, and my money is thus on:
3. Stop producing guidebooks in any shape or form, dispense with narrative content entirely and
focus purely on points of interest. (This is what Zagat has always done.) It also means throwing
any direct revenue model out the window, although it does keep their B2B arm Frommer’s
Unlimited afloat. It will be interesting to see how much money Google is willing to sink into paying
authors and editors to update those reviews, but it’s quite conceivable that the answer is ―none‖, in
which case we end up at the final option:
4. Fire all editorial staff and let the content decay. If the purchase is indeed purely a tactical ploy to
temporarily beef up their reviews while they wait for Google+ to reach critical mass and start to
create fresh, user-generated content à la Zagat, this actually makes perfect sense. Google
doesn’t even need authors for the other half of their usual job, verifying practicalities details
(addresses, telephones, etc), as Google has already mastered that process through other means.
If Google goes with the 3rd or 4th option, and I have hard time seeing them not do so, their second
problem (or, rather, missed opportunity) will be the lack of content curation. By treating guidebooks as
no more than a database in print form, turning them into a homogenous soup of atomic points of interest,
Google is effectively conceding to compete on a level playing field withlocal search rivals like Facebook
and Foursquare. All three now assume that users are searching for individual points, easily filtered on
individual axes: ―best five-star hotel in New York by user ratings‖, ―cheap Japanese restaurant in
Melbourne CBD open for lunch‖ etc.
But a guidebook is not the same as a phone book: it’s supposed to contain a careful selection of the best
places to go, arranged in a sensible way. Neither Facebook nor Foursquare can offer a sensible answer
to real travel questions like ―Funkiest bars in Brussels‖, ―Romantic day in Paris‖, ―Three-day hike in New
Zealand‖, whereas any guidebook about those places that is worth its salt can. As an
engineering-driven company, Google has given things like this little thought simply because they are hard
problems for artificial intelligence to solve — but using Frommer’s team of authors, it would be possible to
augment the automated results produced by things like theKnowledge Graph to field hand-curated
content as well.
If Google goes ahead and does this, then the Guidebook of the Future will be that much closer to reality
and travel publishers will have a real problem on their hands. But I doubt it, and that’s why those
publishers are breathing a sigh of temporary relief: one competitor less means a bigger slice of the
shrinking pie for the rest.
http://skift.com/tag/frommers/
2012.08.17