Google has spent the best part of almost its entire existence denying the concept of Troogle – a travel vertical aggregating its existing and related content with organic search and metasearch.
The content side of the suggestion has played out in a number of different ways.
But the real reason for such swift dismissals from Mountain View – unofficial, most of the time – is why would Google risk irritating many of its existing advertisers by partnering with a metasearch provider or a well-sourced OTA?
Many will remember the rumours sweeping around the web in 2008 regarding a collaboration or buyout by Google with Expedia – for similar reasons, many believed, to Microsoft’s acquisition of Farecast.
Despite the denials (go to any industry conference and the Google representative will always rebut a question about travel verticals), the concept and worries have remained.
But think carefully about the recent announcements – social search, live search – and many of the elements are slipping into place. Content, context and concept-rich search coupled with mapping, videos and other multimedia.
Conspiracy theory or over-egging? Probably…
And that was until this announcement from the Googleplex.
Google is running a pilot of a service which effectively creates a metasearch of mortgage products within the AdWords programme.
When users type in the following search result, for example, they will see some new functionality within the PPC results to allow users to narrow their requirements.
Click further and they will be presented with a not too unfamiliar looking metasearch-type category and listing portal.
Users can alter the search requirements and, similar to traditional metasearch, click on the outbound button to find themselves on the source site.
The people behind Comparison Ads, as Google calls it, have this to say:
“At this time, Comparison Ads will only show to a small number of users in select U.S. states and is only available to a limited number of advertisers in the mortgage/refinance space.
“Over time, we’ll increase the number of users who see Comparison Ads offers as well as the number of advertisers able to participate.”
Now would those “advertisers” perhaps be travel advertisers?
Finance is one of the biggest PPC revenue verticals for Google. The others are motors and travel.
Using Comparison Ads as the tool neatly removes potential accusations of bias that Google would face if it partnered with an OTA or metasearch provider.
Although extremely early stages, this is another potential game-changer in the travel sector. Seeing comparison duties taken on by  the world’s biggest search engine has huge implications.
- PPC ad copywriting
- Product feeds
- Google client servicing
- Product sourcing
- Feed reliability
- Placement within Google real estate
- AdSense extension
But whenever the concept of Troogle (re)surfaces, there are inevitably more questions than answers.
This is an iteration of Google’s aspiration to make all information available. Most travel companies have little to fear from this (other than GOOG’s relentless drive to destroy margins). OTAs that add little to the search experience are the ones that should be frightened. By removing cities from its search corpus, Expedia is practically inviting GOOG to come in and eliminate politics from the booking equation.
Brian has a good point there. If this expanded to travel and if (say) travel providers could upload their product feeds to Google Base/Adwords and run comparison ads like this, it’s actually just serving as a way for consumers to bypass some OTA’s completely.
Google aren’t silly. There is definitely an opportunity for them to serve price lead travel deals to the consumer and make Adwords even more competitive in the process.
Kevin: The thing that I think tinges this thing is the fact that Google will be doing metasearch of ads, right? What happened to delivering true value and relevancy in search. Yes, relevancy in ads, but not metasearch of organic results, right? Makes you wonder sometimes.
Google is shifting away from spidering/AdSense and trying to balance that by providing incentives to businesses and individuals to “feed” up-to-date information into the maw of Google. SideWiki is another signal to Google’s intent, and while widely judged as clumsy, Google has been iterating designs very quickly. Here’s a link to Google Squared – you can see how its DNA has made its way to the mortgage prototype.
http://www.google.com/squared/search?q=hotels
Dennis:
The reason why Google cannot metasearch organic results is because organic includes content other than products, such as reviews, photos, news, etc.
Comparison Ads works as a metasearch because it is (in theory!) product feeds.
Brian + Steve:
Thanks for the comments and the link.
Perhaps one thing that might put Google off implementing for travel is the product feed reliability and accuracy.
Travel has so many complexities, as opposed to mortgage provision, so perhaps it might simply be too much of a headache?
Kevin: I guess one of the points I’m getting at is that if Google were to offer Troogle, then it couldn’t merely be a passive feed-taker, whether it were for advertising or organic feeds — although feed-taking could be part of its special
Troogleness — but it would have to establish metasearch relationships with intermediaries and suppliers in a powerful way. Otherwise, wouldn’t Google become just another, albeit very talented, screen-scraper?
Hi Kevin,
Those complexities you mention are indeed a headache, which is why Google is breaking down the problem into increments. They have invited a number of AdSense users who have a history of buying “mortgage” and developing a system that reflects the nuances of the mortgage buying process. The DNA of the problem, and Google’s approach to managing those same complexities, will be baked into future iterations.
Note these insights stem from our experiences in working with some ex-Googlers in developing a solution to a similar problem (apartment selection), which you can see at http://www.rentmarketer.com.