How can I read this article, it is behind a paywall?
TripAdvisor cuts hundreds of jobs after Google competition bites
71–80 of 134 posts
Re: TripAdvisor cuts hundreds of jobs after Google competition bites
#72It really hasn't been covered enough just how much Google has replaced organic search results with their own features. In some cases it's almost all of the above the fold real estate and for shopping they are starting to take over the checkout experience as well. It's significantly reducing organic traffic and turning e-commerce sites into Google suppliers.
It's been going on a long time, Google's been killing off aggregators by cannibalising their market for almost a decade now. I do wonder how sustainable it is, previously these aggregators did lots of things at Google's request, cleaning the noise out and laying everything out in nice data-annotations. More fool them, it turns out. Google cross-references them all, builds their 'own' data and drives them all out of b…
At the minimum, a nationalized web index would be fantastic (modulo the normal concerns above government censorship that already apply). It would reduce so much duplicated effort if there were a standard government crawler that indexed the web and made that data available to anyone who wanted to use it.
Similar to the way weather data is collected by the government, and multiple private companies use it to produce their own sites and forecasts, you could have different search engines doing different interesting things with the data: compete on UX, or focus on particular niches of search.
As it stands today, we have a Bing-Google duopoly because indexing the whole web is such a massive undertaking.
Re: TripAdvisor cuts hundreds of jobs after Google competition bites
#73Google 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…
> They'll buy you or break you.
You say that like they are equally bad for you. Being bought out is great for the previous owners. (Otherwise, they wouldn't sell.)
Re: TripAdvisor cuts hundreds of jobs after Google competition bites
#74Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
Can you elaborate why you think they are bad?
Re: TripAdvisor cuts hundreds of jobs after Google competition bites
#75Oddly enough they were head-hunting super intensely last year. I wonder if they were doing that to hire devs for lower pay in order to let go more senior individuals to save money...
Re: TripAdvisor cuts hundreds of jobs after Google competition bites
#76> Google has also crammed the top of its mobile search results with more ads. This has forced many companies, including TripAdvisor, to buy more ads from the search giant to keep online traffic flowing. That seems wild to me: not only does Google get more $ from ads, but they have this massive power to wipe out competitors this way, with minimal repercussions. Two-birds, one stone.
>That seems wild to me: not only does Google get more $ from ads, but they have this massive power to wipe out competitors this way, with minimal repercussions. Two-birds, one stone.
Crazy thing is they are using their competitors money to wipe away competition.
Re: TripAdvisor cuts hundreds of jobs after Google competition bites
#77Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
Yelp hasn't grown outside the US though while Google Maps/Local has gotten bigger worldwide.
Re: TripAdvisor cuts hundreds of jobs after Google competition bites
#78Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
Why would you need or care about the calorie-count of a recipe?Either you want that food or not. Your guts will tell you.
Is having a natural approach to food no longer normal?
Re: TripAdvisor cuts hundreds of jobs after Google competition bites
#79Google 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…
There is something wrong with a monopoly, it's just been so long since any of it has been enforced that people have forgotten. Hopefully that changes soon.
Re: TripAdvisor cuts hundreds of jobs after Google competition bites
#80Google 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…
Gmail's UI is very, very bad by contemporary standards — but yes.