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TripAdvisor cuts hundreds of jobs after Google competition bites

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Re: TripAdvisor cuts hundreds of jobs after Google competition bites

#41

Post by throwawaybbb »

the_reformation wrote: post #32
mfer wrote: post #2

Google controls search. Google launches a competitor to a web service presented through search. Competitor takes enough of a hit layoffs are needed. This screams of a problem. Especially for consumers and a competitive market. The kind of thing that traditionally caused governments to step in.

Google launched a service consumers preferred. What's the issue? That they have a sustained competitive advantage?

Imagine if 70% of roads were privately owned by one company. That company, call it roadle, opened a restaurant chain. There is free parking in front of all roadle restaurants. There are always roadworks around all non roadle restaurants.

This is what search is like today.

Re: TripAdvisor cuts hundreds of jobs after Google competition bites

#43

Post by buboard »

mfer wrote: post #2

Google controls search. Google launches a competitor to a web service presented through search. Competitor takes enough of a hit layoffs are needed. This screams of a problem. Especially for consumers and a competitive market. The kind of thing that traditionally caused governments to step in.

this is self correcting. sites will just block google from stealing their content. inconvenient, but people can't have everything for free, forever

Re: TripAdvisor cuts hundreds of jobs after Google competition bites

#44

Post by cycrutchfield »

throwawaybbb wrote: post #41
the_reformation wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google launched a service consumers preferred. What's the issue? That they have a sustained competitive advantage?

Imagine if 70% of roads were privately owned by one company. That company, call it roadle, opened a restaurant chain. There is free parking in front of all roadle restaurants. There are always roadworks around all non roadle restaurants. This is what search is like today.

Not at all the same comparison. People that don't like Google or their additions to organic search results can simply switch to another competitor.

Re: TripAdvisor cuts hundreds of jobs after Google competition bites

#46

Post by 9nGQluzmnq3M »

pradn wrote: post #40
jbverschoor wrote: post #35

The problem is not google. It’s trip advisor itself. It’s simply not helpful anymore. Fake reviews, and they’re pushing paid events etc using dark patterns.. it wasn’t like that some years ago Love the lonely planet

Whenever I want to look up the highlights of a place, I look up it's Lonely Planet page. They are written well and have good pictures. The way to compete against a million random reviewers is by upping quality and forming a brand. In some places, Lonely Planet is the only company providing accurate and complete information. It's marvelous.

Unfortunately Lonely Planet's old business model of getting people to pay for content itself has basically stopped working now that there's a million free digital competitors, and they've yet to come up with a replacement that does.

Re: TripAdvisor cuts hundreds of jobs after Google competition bites

#47

Post by bobbiechen »

dba7dba wrote: post #9

Any business without physical inventory that can be automated in a way to sell/buy should really worry about Google. Eventually Google will come for that market as their new crop of managers/execs will want to make the number to get their bonus and move up the ladder. I know a guy who used to work at tripadvisor years ago. At the time Google was trying to start up their own hotel search business but they didn't have…

There's a similar story from Jeremy Stoppelman about Google scraping Yelp content in 2010 even though their licensing agreement ended in 2007.

Source is the Senate Antitrust Committee hearing in 2011 on Google's dominance, the BI link below includes the exhibits as well.

https://www.businessinsider.com/yelp-ceo-on-google-2011-9

Re: TripAdvisor cuts hundreds of jobs after Google competition bites

#48

Post by what_ever »

nemothekid wrote: post #28
sct202 wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Expedia had a bad last quarter and blamed it on Google. Booking has a good quarter and said they did a better job with retaining visitors to skip Google.

I wish these guys would follow AirBnb in at least pretending to care about design. I know Booking.com is trying, and for that I can retain the knowledge of going directly to Booking.com/AirBnb. TripAdvisor's site is a nightmare to navigate. It's easier to find things by searching them on Google than trying to navigate TripAdvisor. I won't lose sleep once someone finds out how to arrange their information in a cleaner…

Tbh, AirBnB is pretty bad to use itself. Not b.com bad but still shouldn't be used as an example.

Re: TripAdvisor cuts hundreds of jobs after Google competition bites

#49

Post by glofish »

jbverschoor wrote: post #35

The problem is not google. It’s trip advisor itself. It’s simply not helpful anymore. Fake reviews, and they’re pushing paid events etc using dark patterns.. it wasn’t like that some years ago Love the lonely planet

This!

I used to visit Tripadvisor a lot, but then, with time the site became less and less useful - always pushing the next tour, next paid event,

complete disregard to what the site was supposed to be, advice about trips

Hence I stopped visiting altogether.

Re: TripAdvisor cuts hundreds of jobs after Google competition bites

#50

Post by woutr_be »

rapnie wrote: post #11
Rebelgecko wrote: post #3

That's a bummer. I've found that TripAdvisor reviews tend to have a higher signal to noise ratio than some other sites (including Google's own reviews, where you can tell a lot of the reviews are just being cranked out so that power users can get points and "level up")

They are no angels either, or at least their daughter company. Two weeks ago TheFork featured in Dutch TV program Rambam where they proved that they boost restaurant ratings. They listed their own fake restaurant (possible, no problem) and gave their own reviews, trying to become lowest rated in the ranking. Giving rebates on couverts may boost your ranking too. Restaurant owners interviewed are not too happy as well…

> Restaurant owners interviewed are not too happy as well. They feel forced to subscribe because of popularity of the site, but have to pay 2 euro per person per reservation. Also it happens that without their knowledge TheFork arranges the Reservation button on Google search, so they flow through their platform.

I've always wondered how this works. Especially when most travellers these days rely on Maps / Tripadvisor to plan their trips. Restaurant owners are almost forced to be on those platforms.

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