Google tries again to muscle in on crowded market for travel planning apps
Google Trips lets you build an itinerary from flight information, hotel and car reservations retrieved from your e-mail, proposes places to go and things to see (and sends you lots of travel-related ads)
Google wants you to take a new companion along on your next trip: a travel app that plans each day and each excursion.
With Google Trips, available on iOS and Android, you can build an itinerary from flight information, hotel and car reservations retrieved from your e-mail and discover places to go and things to see while you are on the go.
Google is not the only technology company trying to book more space on your smartphone. There’s been steady growth in travel planning apps in recent years. In June, Yahoo rolled out Yahoo Radar that, like Google Trips, organises reservations and taps partners such as Yelp and TripAdvisor to highlight must-see sights and nearby restaurants. Airbnb is testing a new travel app, Airbnb Trips, that recommends similar activities, much like a hotel concierge.
This is the latest attempt by Google to propel itself into the online travel business. In 2011, Google overcame antitrust scrutiny to buy ITA Software, the flight-data company that now powers its flight-search service. In March, Google launched Destinations, a mobile search tool that functions like a digital travel agent.
“The bottom line is people spend a lot of money on travel and the more Google can get them to consider it as a go-to place for travel information, the more opportunity Google will have to show them travel-related ads,” said long-time Google observer Danny Sullivan, founding editor of Search Engine Land.