Google flight search breaks vow, Expedia says

"Google Inc. is breaking a promise it made to antitrust regulators who approved its purchase of ITA Software Inc. this year by ranking its new flight information service ahead of competitors, according to Expedia Inc.

Google, which introduced its own flight search service Sept. 13, “excludes any link to online travel agencies, which are key options for comparison shopping,’’ according to testimony by Tom Barnett, Expedia’s outside counsel, prepared for delivery today at a Senate Judiciary antitrust subcommittee hearing on Google’s business practices on the Internet."

via boston.com - read full article

Google+ Posts Now Appear in Google Search Results

"Google has begun integrating Google+ into search results with public Google+ posts now appearing in Social Search.

Whenever a user publicly shares a link on Google+, an annotation will show up under that link when it appears in a friend’s search results. For example, if I share a Mashable article about Google+ eliminating pseudonyms publicly on my Google+ page, users who have added me to their circles will see a note that I shared that link if they stumble upon it in Google Search."

Read the full article at mashable.com

Find the perfect hotel with the Hotel Finder experiment

From Google - Inside Search The Official Google Blog:

"Finding the right hotel can make or break your vacation, so with this in mind, we’re introducing Hotel Finder, a new experimental search tool specifically designed to help you find that perfect hotel. Google Hotel Finder makes it easy to narrow down the options..."

Read all the details at Google - Inside Search The Official Google Blog

Google Removes Mashable, Sesame Street & Other Prominent Accounts From Google Plus

"Some of the biggest company/brand accounts on Google+ have now — finally, some might say — been removed.

The Google Plus pages for Mashable, Ford and Sesame Street are all gone. Our own Search Engine Land page has also been removed. Mashable was, according to SocialStatistics.com, the No. 4 most popular account on Google+ with more than 103,000 followers.

All of those accounts have been replaced by a 404 error message. (Update: see postscript at the end of this article.)

Google has been removing business/brand accounts for more than a week now, but some users were unhappy with the random nature of the process. Some accounts were zapped early on while others seemed to get special treatment, or at least were ignored, and continued to increase their following."

Read the full article at searchengineland.com

Google launches indexed local directory portals

"Google has just released city-specific business directories that are clearly going to compete with Yelp, Citysearch, and for travel with TripAdvisor in terms of highlighting popular local businesses.

Google has been trying hard to get a secure position in the local scene. As Marissa Mayer described it, local was one of the important aspects of the current web – with the others being media, search, mobile, and social. With YouTube, Google has the media stage. With Android, Google has mobile. But the social sphere and the local platform are both owned by competitors (specifically Facebook and Groupon), and Google has to fight to catch up."

Via hotelmarketing.com

Lodging Interactive Launches Brand Field Marketing Services

Just announced the launch of our new Brand Field Marketing Services for hotel franchisees.  Even if a your branded hotel doesn't have a website...we can help you optimize your brand.com pages.  Check it out.

>> Click to read more: Lodging Interactive Launches Brand Field Marketing Services

 

Lodging Interactive Advises: What Google +1 Means For Hotels

Clearly Google+1 is a direct ‘across the bow’ shot at Facebook.  While Google+1 might seem similar to Facebook’s Like button, it is a stronger power of influence when it comes to validating the popularity and authenticity of a website.

It should not be news to anyone at this time that the search engines have been quietly incorporating “social signals” into their search engine algorithms.  Algorithms are mathematical computations which help the search engines to determine where your hotel website listing will appear on a search results page.  Starting this week, if you are logged into your Google account, you can expect to see Google+1 buttons in your Google search results pages.  When a user clicks +1, they’re declaring their affinity for a particular search result, which Google is considering as ‘human vote of confidence.”  In the near future you will also see the Google+1 buttons on websites across the web, much like Facebook’s Open Graph and their Like button.

 

So here is the a-ha moment for hotels; Google has found a way to make us all become influencers of relevancy and as we +1 our way throughout the web, we will be shaping and helping to determine which website will be listed on a results page...and which one’s won’t.

We believe Google+1 is superior to Facebook’s Like button because in order to +1, you have to create a publicly accessible user profile.  This will make it difficult for companies to game the system by creating fake profiles.  While Facebook is closing in on 700,000 million users, we all know people who have multiple profiles as well as zoo animals who have their own profile pages.

So what does this all mean for hoteliers?  Clearly hotel search engine listings, organic and paid, will increasingly be influenced by Likes and +1’s.  Does your hotel have a strategy to ensure consumers +1 your search engine listings on Google when presented with the opportunity? If your website ranks well on Google now, are you prepared for the loss of rank position when your competitors have more +1’s than your hotel has?  Hoteliers should no longer think as marketers do, but rather think as publishers do.  Only relevant, informative not overly promotional content will encourage consumers to +1 your website.  Gone are the days of simply providing ‘marketing speak’ to get attention, now and in the future it will be all about providing valuable content.

For more information about Google+1 you can visit the Google+1 website:  http://www.google.com/+1/button/

Meet +1: Google’s Answer To The Facebook Like Button

"Nearly a year after Facebook Like buttons spread out across the web, Google has announced its own rival, the +1 button. It launches today as part of Google’s search engine, allowing you to “+1″ the search results and ads that you like. And in a few months, it’ll be arriving at a web site near you."

Read the complete article at www.searchengineland.com

 

The Future of Social Search

"A “social search” is one that ties a searcher’s social graph to his search queries. With social search, each searcher sees unique results that are shaped by the interests of his social network friends.

Google, not the company to often fudge with the appearance or function of its search results, turned on its version of social search more than a year ago. It has since gone on to more prominently feature social search results and blend them in with regular results.

One should not make light of these changes; they point to the company’s recognition that the average web user, who now spends more time on Facebook, may be not-so-quietly demanding a new form of search."

Read the full article at www.mashable.com

Microsoft Bing: Impact on Google, Expedia

"Microsoft's Bing has recently added a new feature called Price Predictors to its travel searches. It suggests if one should buy now or hold off for a better fare based on how fares are trending. Some analysts believe this will have an impact on companies like Expedia and challenge Google's move into travel search."

Read more at www.hotelmarketing.com