Archive for the ‘change’ Category:
Why Google Is Chasing Travel
At Social Flights, we have said many times that nothing economic truly can happen until people get together to build something. Economics is the science of incentives and no incentive is stronger in the human species than family and community. It does not take much of a chasm of reason to see why Google is so interested in travel and travel related properties.
Travel is the keystone for change; change of ideas, change of relationship, change of intentions, and change of markets. A banker is not interested in money – they are interested in the rate of change of money; it’s called “interest rate”. People are not interested in the same old story, they want the story to change – this is what keeps their “interest”
Again, we find Google at the center of the social “Interest Rate” in travel. Don’t think for a minute that Facebook “timeline” is not also a move to capture how people change and react and adapt to the conditions around them. This almost makes it pointless for people to try to react to these changes because such a reaction is, in fact, registered by the platform driving the reaction. Is this a problem?
From http://www.tnooz.com/2011/12/12/news/google-quietly-introduces-social-travel-service-schemer/
What makes you want to go to a place to begin with? When you have chosen a place – what makes you want to explore further? The inspiration phase of leisure trip planning research has been by far the hardest for tech-based services to master.
Google has announced (and started sending out Beta invites to) a new service, known as Schemer, which attempts to compete in this gap. Effectively it is local destination ideas based on tips from your (Google+) friends, celebrities (oh yes!) and professional destination content producers (ie. travel writers).
If destination research moves to starting at Google Schemer rather than Google Search, then Google will be able to pitch flights, hotels and other travel services, without having to necessarily work within the confines of their existing web properties.
Everyone else who makes it their business to build P2P platforms such as tour guides and recommendation platforms will be cut out of the loop. If Google can now branch away from their core search and into the social connectivity business, they can compete with their own customers. Is this a problem?
What Google does not do, and cannot do, is actually operate a jet aircraft. They cannot clean a hotel room or manufacture a rental car. They cannot cook a holiday dinner or wax a snowboard. Real people need to do this. Why is Google chasing Travel? Google is chasing people. At the end of the day, people drive Google. Is that a problem?
Why Google Is Chasing Travel
At Social Flights, we have said many times that nothing economic truly can happen until people get together to build something. Economics is the science of incentives and no incentive is stronger in the human species than family and community. It does not take much of a chasm of reason to see why Google is so interested in travel and travel related properties.
Travel is the keystone for change; change of ideas, change of relationship, change of intentions, and change of markets. A banker is not interested in money – they are interested in the rate of change of money; it’s called “interest rate”. People are not interested in the same old story, they want the story to change – this is what keeps their “interest”
Again, we find Google at the center of the social “Interest Rate” in travel. Don’t think for a minute that Facebook “timeline” is not also a move to capture how people change and react and adapt to the conditions around them. This almost makes it pointless for people to try to react to these changes because such a reaction is, in fact, registered by the platform driving the reaction. Is this a problem?
From http://www.tnooz.com/2011/12/12/news/google-quietly-introduces-social-travel-service-schemer/
What makes you want to go to a place to begin with? When you have chosen a place – what makes you want to explore further? The inspiration phase of leisure trip planning research has been by far the hardest for tech-based services to master.
Google has announced (and started sending out Beta invites to) a new service, known as Schemer, which attempts to compete in this gap. Effectively it is local destination ideas based on tips from your (Google+) friends, celebrities (oh yes!) and professional destination content producers (ie. travel writers).
If destination research moves to starting at Google Schemer rather than Google Search, then Google will be able to pitch flights, hotels and other travel services, without having to necessarily work within the confines of their existing web properties.
Everyone else who makes it their business to build P2P platforms such as tour guides and recommendation platforms will be cut out of the loop. If Google can now branch away from their core search and into the social connectivity business, they can compete with their own customers. Is this a problem?
What Google does not do, and cannot do, is actually operate a jet aircraft. They cannot clean a hotel room or manufacture a rental car. They cannot cook a holiday dinner or wax a snowboard. Real people need to do this. Why is Google chasing Travel? Google is chasing people. At the end of the day, people drive Google. Is that a problem?