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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

#121

Post by buboard »

pxtail wrote: post #117
buboard wrote: post #42

why do people keep having their content for free for google to use? it doesn't make sense anymore. the google web social contract is broken, there is no tit for tat anymore. only paywall sites get it right now.

because grim reality is that there is no other way around this. And the paywalled sites argument - even they are providing their content to google, it's just the user who gets paywall. Another question is if this does even work - maybe for top 50 sites? Even here on HN where wealthy readers are flexing with their expensive cars, houses, earnings etc. at the same time when paywalled article appears it is circumvented…

perhaps if, however, tripadvisor had not been opening its content for free to google, but took it behind a signup-wall (like facebook does), they would have trained users to use their own site instead of google for trip information. It's doable, because the use case of their website is quite specific (i've only used the tripadvisor app while traveling). If they didn't make it so easy for google to impersonate them, they might have had a more loyal, monetizable audience. It's slightly inconvenient for users, but the alternative nowadays is complete destruction of the company.

Re: TripAdvisor cuts hundreds of jobs after Google competition bites

#122

Post by buboard »

dannyr wrote: post #76
s3r3nity wrote: post #57

> 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.

three birds

Re: TripAdvisor cuts hundreds of jobs after Google competition bites

#124

Post by unionpivo »

mattmanser wrote: post #12
threeseed wrote: post #7

It 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…

Nationalized or public index, would be something I would get behind. And then other people an companies could build search around it.

Re: TripAdvisor cuts hundreds of jobs after Google competition bites

#125

Post by tguedes »

Johnny555 wrote: post #66
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...

How is this different than Walmart, Target, or name any grocery store offering their branded version of products in order to drive down prices?

Re: TripAdvisor cuts hundreds of jobs after Google competition bites

#126

Post by Johnny555 »

tguedes wrote: post #125
Johnny555 wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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...

How is this different than Walmart, Target, or name any grocery store offering their branded version of products in order to drive down prices?

In many cases those store brand products are made by the same manufacturer as the brand names, but I don't think Amazon typically negotiates with the original product owner for manufacturing their clone.

Re: TripAdvisor cuts hundreds of jobs after Google competition bites

#127

Post by [deleted] »

9nGQluzmnq3M wrote: post #46
pradn wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

[deleted]

Re: TripAdvisor cuts hundreds of jobs after Google competition bites

#128

Post by unlinked_dll »

Marazan wrote: post #88
ProAm wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The truth is most companies tend to last ~20 years (from mom and pop to larger ones) if they are successful. You're lucky if you make it further. This is one of those that isn't going to last much further.

Google is eating the travel industry. Search for anything travel related and you get pages of Google products and advertising widgets before you get to the first organic result. The change over the last 5 years is huge.

Just looking for simple statistics and numbers on the tourism and hospitality industry is difficult on google. Every query just returns ads.

Re: TripAdvisor cuts hundreds of jobs after Google competition bites

#129

Post by mjevans »

Johnny555 wrote: post #126
tguedes wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How is this different than Walmart, Target, or name any grocery store offering their branded version of products in order to drive down prices?

In many cases those store brand products are made by the same manufacturer as the brand names, but I don't think Amazon typically negotiates with the original product owner for manufacturing their clone.

Most of the Amazon X products I can think of are really basic obvious things. Sheets, cables, simple computer peripherals... well OK those are the things I remember ordering offhand that were such things.

My point is that they'd be categorized as basic staple items. Someone else might have sold a particular size or feature of X, but I don't see any reason why Amazon or another competitor wouldn't think to copy it.

Instead (as I made in a different reply a couple hours before yours) I believe it's the strength of Brand Recognition as a form of Quality Control, which is an area that has decayed on Amazon as a whole but less so with their own brand of products.

Re: TripAdvisor cuts hundreds of jobs after Google competition bites

#130

Post by Johnny555 »

mjevans wrote: post #129
Johnny555 wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In many cases those store brand products are made by the same manufacturer as the brand names, but I don't think Amazon typically negotiates with the original product owner for manufacturing their clone.

Most of the Amazon X products I can think of are really basic obvious things. Sheets, cables, simple computer peripherals... well OK those are the things I remember ordering offhand that were such things. My point is that they'd be categorized as basic staple items. Someone else might have sold a particular size or feature of X, but I don't see any reason why Amazon or another competitor wouldn't think to copy it. In…

Not all of their products are "Amazon Basics" products - they have a lot of private label brands that aren't obviously "Amazon".

But the article I referenced above was a company that came out with a nice laptop stand design and a few months later, Amazon started selling one of their own that looked basically the same (but not identical).

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