Oh, the chaos.

The very recent growth of location-based services like foursquare and Gowalla, Google’s potential acquisition of ITA Software, and the introduction of Facebook’s social graph, with its universal website sign-in functionality and Like buttons, has the potential to shake up the travel business and the wider Web in really big ways.

How much? It’s anyone’s guess.

That was the theme of a PhoCusWright Town Hall at the Travdex trade show in Atlanta late yesterday afternoon as CEO Philip Wolf pointed to the disruption and led a discussion about the potential fallout.

Which will have a greater impact, he asked, a Google acquisition of ITA Software or Facebook’s social graph?

The views were mixed as Travdex attendees and analysts, sipping various libations in the exhibition hall at the Cobb Galleria Centre, chimed in with their opinions.

Wolf said Google’s acquisition of ITA Software could be “needle-moving” if it leads to “the best little app” for air search and Google “makes it open to the world.”

PhoCusWright analyst Norm Rose argued that both Facebook’s social graph — because its ripples will be felt way beyond the travel industry — and Google-ITA, which he says would bring travel metasearch into Google’s core search functionality, will both be big.

But, Rose argued that Google-ITA may be more impactful because there is so much push-back against Facebook out of privacy concerns.

Several Travdex attendees waded in with their views, with one arguing that Facebook’s impact would be larger than Google-ITA because of Facebook’s 400 million or so users, and another participant speculated that it would take Google a year to integrate ITA anyway.

As the town hall rolled on, Wolf came down on the side of the Facebook social graph having greater kapow than a Google-ITA mashup.

He said the impact of the Facebook social graph, with millions of consumers using its univeral log-in feature, could be “humongatory.”

With consumers signing-on across the Web with their Facebook screen names, bringing their personal information along with them, and with your social-network friends being able to rate hotels with the Like button, these kind of changes could be far-reaching, he argued.

“You don’t think that’s big?” Wolf said, referring to the universal log-in.

Rezgo CEO Stephen Joyce concurred, noting that the personal-data aggregation inherent in the social graph will bring game-changing delivery of pay-per click product advertising for travel and other businesses.

“This could be personalization on steroids,” Wolf agreed.

In fact, Wolf contended that the advent of the social graph’s universal log-in and the platform fragmentation inherent with the potpouri of mobile devices, are among factors leading to a conclusion that the “golden era of the Web is officially over.”

Well, that was fast.

Oh, the disruption.

And, the speed of change.

Wolf pointed to travel companies’ challenges these days when they have to optimize their offerings for the PC, disparate mobile platforms, including the iPad, as well as for YouTube and Flickr.

And etc. etc. etc.

There was much talk and debate at the Travdex town hall about the implications of other hot trends and and seemingly mind-numbing developments. Among them:

• Priceline’s overtaking Expedia in market cap.

• Online travel agencies on a growth path amidst the hotel industry’s worst year, and whether consumers would return to supplier-direct channels once travel rebounds?

• The explosive growth of foursquare and Gowalla “out of nowhere.”

• Apple’s acquisition of Siri and what that would do for Apple’s iTravel strategy.

• The impact of ancillary services and merchandising and the nature of the changes it would engender.

Amidst the discussion, an occasional smartphone would ring, a text message would ping, an iPad or two emerged out of their cases, and one attendee said he would never go back to booking his travel via fax.

Faxes were big in a seemingly less-chaotic time.

But, today faxes are so yesterday.

I recently spent a morning wandering around the Spice Market in Istanbul and I think I lost my sense of smell just from the sheer assault on the olfactory system.

I then spent the next morning in the Grand Bazaar where again, I experienced a breakdown of the senses and quickly became disoriented (ie lost) and confused (ie lost) from all the choice of merchandise, combined chatter of the merchants and shoppers and always, someone trying to get your attention to sell you something.

It’s a bit like the internet really. You go in there with a vague sense of purpose and you end up distracted, diverted, confused and even flummoxed.

And just when you thought you had it all kind of figured out, another new alley opens up, full of promise – merchandise that looks about the same but wait, isn’t that the colour you want and maybe, just maybe, you could get it cheaper?

PhoCusWright chief executive Philip Wolf calls it “the new chaos” – the proliferation and fragmentation of device, channel and platform.

You thought you had search figured out? Uncheck that. You thought you understood social networks. Uncheck that. You still struggling to figure out what content people will pay for? Check that. You confused over the number of devices that are coming out? Continue to be.

“With the universe of content exploding, SEO strategy just got worse,” says Wolf. “There’s a lot of tension about content. More publishers are putting content under paid benefits and behind firewalls.

“The strains on search will become more complicated, we can’t even predict what will happen.”

At the bloggers gathering organised by PhoCusWright at ITB Berlin, it was also interesting to see what social networks bloggers were using and for what.

The majority were using Twitter for curating editorial content, most found Facebook better for business than Twitter and the power of LinkedIn ads for recruitment purposes was mentioned.

The iPad, it was agreed, would put a stop to newspaper deliveries at home. It would also create lots of different content applications – “snackable, chargeable, brandable – just like potato chips,” said Wolf.

When asked what was Lonely Planet’s thinking about potato chips, sorry, content, CEO Matthew Goldberg says: “I’m a believer that not all content should be paid for – only differentiated and useful content. Travel is a good place to charge.”

When Goldberg took over, following BBC’s acquisition of Lonely Planet, revenues were split 75% from the core business and 25% from emerging channels. Its three-year plan is to achieve a 65/35 split while increasing the core.

And just as you think print is dead, Lonely Planet is launching a new magazine in the UK and soon, India. “I don’t think print is dead. You just have to rethink what business you are in. We are not in pulp and trees,” says Goldberg.

The same goes for the mobile platform. “The key question to ask is what business you are in. The rest is just about platforms and what platforms travellers prefer.”

I think this is a good question to ask in this time of the “new chaos”. What business are you in, what purpose do you serve and what do you want to achieve?

Otherwise, you could end up in a place like the Grand Bazaar and end up with carpets and silks that you don’t need.