Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

TripAdvisor cuts hundreds of jobs after Google competition bites

bloomberg.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

61–70 of 134 posts

Re: TripAdvisor cuts hundreds of jobs after Google competition bites

#61

Post by mamurphy »

cycrutchfield wrote: post #44
throwawaybbb wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

>Not at all the same comparison.

No, their comparison was perfect! They said roadle owned 70% of roads, not all of them. Sure, businesses can hope that they get their traffic from non-Google search, but if customers are going to Google for 70+% of search, that's a doomed business strategy.

Their point isn't that Google is bad for consumers, it's that it's unfair for businesses if Google is driving all the search to its own properties that you are trying to compete with.

Re: TripAdvisor cuts hundreds of jobs after Google competition bites

#62

Post by meddlepal »

mattnewton wrote: post #55
tenpies wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Space Force uniform was a Kobayashi Maru. If money was not spent and they used an existing uniform to keep costs low, critics would complain that the uniform does not match the environment. If money was spent to design a new uniform that matched the environment, critics would complain that money was wasted on uniforms and they would probably acknowledge the comicality of thinking that a uniformed soldier in space…

Not to get too off topic, but it's clearly a self inflicted problem, where nobody would complain about spending money on space force uniforms if space force's existence made any sense.

Why does militarization of space not make sense? It makes a lot of sense unless you're a pacifist.

Re: TripAdvisor cuts hundreds of jobs after Google competition bites

#63

Post by toephu2 »

jorblumesea wrote: post #60

Pretty much every site that depends on Google search and organic traffic is in trouble. Trip Advisor, Expedia, Booking.com, most OTAs. Their lunch is being eaten.

Yup, next up: Yelp.

Personally I stopped using TripAdvisor in favor of Google Maps. Also stopped using Yelp in favor of Google Maps. It's all integrated so nicely, no need to open another app for reviews.

Re: TripAdvisor cuts hundreds of jobs after Google competition bites

#64

Post by systematical »

Google is pretty much taking your shit nowadays and there is nothing you can do about it. That shit is either a company you built or a product of theirs that you used. They are not a search company, they are a conglomerate. They'll buy you or break you. It's funny when they fail though isn't it? Remember Google+? Who lead that initiative? What a travesty that was. Outside of Gmail, Google's UIs really do suck.

But back to the point. There really isn't anything wrong with what they are doing, they are a typical business. Again, nothing wrong with that. They do stuff for their own self-interest. They are not your friends. Organic search results get in the way of advertising.

Re: TripAdvisor cuts hundreds of jobs after Google competition bites

#65

Post by Godel_unicode »

reaperducer wrote: post #51
droopyEyelids wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This makes me think about how Google has begun to demand recipe sites include Calorie counts. Are we a few years away from Google Recipe Search?

One of the sites I maintain has a collection of recipes. It was only when Google started sending me email because they lacked calorie counts that I realized what a terrible idea microdata is for everyone but Google. I have since taken all of the microdata out of the HTML. If google wants it, it can pay for it.

> everyone but Google

... and the users of Google. Being able to see things like calorie counts directly in search results is awesome. Seriously, if you Google "banana bread" you get recipe ratings, cooking time, and calories right in the list of results. The UX is exceptional.

Re: TripAdvisor cuts hundreds of jobs after Google competition bites

#66

Post by Johnny555 »

systematical wrote: post #64

Google is pretty much taking your shit nowadays and there is nothing you can do about it. That shit is either a company you built or a product of theirs that you used. They are not a search company, they are a conglomerate. They'll buy you or break you. It's funny when they fail though isn't it? Remember Google+? Who lead that initiative? What a travesty that was. Outside of Gmail, Google's UIs really do suck. But ba…

Google is pretty much taking your shit nowadays and there is nothing you can do about it

That sounds like Amazon -- if you've got a hot selling product on Amazon, you can expect them to copy it and start selling it under the Amazon brand:

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-04-20/got-a-hot...

Re: TripAdvisor cuts hundreds of jobs after Google competition bites

#67

Post by stickfigure »

toephu2 wrote: post #63
jorblumesea wrote: post #60

Pretty much every site that depends on Google search and organic traffic is in trouble. Trip Advisor, Expedia, Booking.com, most OTAs. Their lunch is being eaten.

Yup, next up: Yelp. Personally I stopped using TripAdvisor in favor of Google Maps. Also stopped using Yelp in favor of Google Maps. It's all integrated so nicely, no need to open another app for reviews.

I'm as surprised as anyone, but Yelp seems to be holding on. G's reviews just aren't as good, and don't seem to be as critical. Not sure if it's just easier to game? Pretty much everything on Google maps is a 4.0.

Re: TripAdvisor cuts hundreds of jobs after Google competition bites

#68

Post by goatinaboat »

tenpies wrote: post #52
astrodust wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You've got a space force with their own wacky uniforms, so anything is possible.

The Space Force uniform was a Kobayashi Maru. If money was not spent and they used an existing uniform to keep costs low, critics would complain that the uniform does not match the environment. If money was spent to design a new uniform that matched the environment, critics would complain that money was wasted on uniforms and they would probably acknowledge the comicality of thinking that a uniformed soldier in space…

the comicality of thinking that a uniformed soldier in space would care about camouflage

Consider that air forces throughout the world wear blue uniforms, yet no individual in uniform is ever going to attempt to camouflage themselves against the sky...

Re: TripAdvisor cuts hundreds of jobs after Google competition bites

#69

Post by trianglem »

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.

That analogy does not work. It’s more like google is a telephone directory.

Re: TripAdvisor cuts hundreds of jobs after Google competition bites

#70

Post by ironmagma »

mamurphy wrote: post #61
cycrutchfield wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

>Not at all the same comparison. No, their comparison was perfect! They said roadle owned 70% of roads, not all of them. Sure, businesses can hope that they get their traffic from non-Google search, but if customers are going to Google for 70+% of search, that's a doomed business strategy. Their point isn't that Google is bad for consumers, it's that it's unfair for businesses if Google is driving all the search to i…

Google is essentially a piece of international infrastructure at this point. If it went out of existence, the productivity of millions of people would take at least a minor nose dive and the funnels for user conversion for businesses would change drastically overnight leading to a macroscopic restructuring of business priorities.
Post reply on HN