Cape Town – Google has reacted strongly to the Microsoft’s move to acquire Yahoo. It has requested the competitions regulator study the proposal carefully. Is this Google acting in the best interest of the internet, under it’s “do no evil” policy? Or is it the reaction of a nervous monopoly worried it’s power might come under threat – it has recently blamed social networking sites, Facebook and Myspace for taking away some of its search revenue. More importantly however, is what it means for the travel industry?
Possibly nothing – Google will still dominate search and with much of the preoccupation of the travel industry being on PPC and SEO, many will continue with out so much as looking up.
However, where it does become interesting for the travel industry is in the combined power of the Microsoft and Yahoo’s non search real-estate. With Kelkoo, Facebook, Yahoo Answers, MSN and Yahoo search, Hotmail, Yahoo travel, flickr and a host of other travel related applications, the ability to influence travellers where it really counts lies strongly in their hands.
Further Microsoft also has experience in the travel industry having been involved at the out set with a small online travel company called Expedia. We should not be surprised if this is not target area for the combined force.
The advertising opportunities in the non-search space require a different mind set. However this new advertising platform could challenge Google Awords and present exciting opportunities to travel companies. A shift back to targeting users by demographics rather than keywords may result in better returns on investment. Further tapping into the power of the social network giant Facebook and Flickr to influence travellers through peer referral is a marketers dream.
If Microsoft adCenter can grow and create an effective tool to leveraging it’s immense online presence then Google is rightly worried. The travel industry should be a beneficiary of this increased competition.
If this shift does happen then the dominance of search will be broken, ushering in a raft of new opportunities. Not all will pan out but some are sure to offer great branding opportunities and new points of touch with the customer.
The signs of the nature and power of search changing are there. The threat to Google may come from out side of the MSN Yahoo tie up. Wikiapedia accounts for nearly 2% of all traffic and Google has no access to advertise to this traffic. Yet because of the quality and power of Wiki it is forced to dish up it’s results in the top spot for almost all information searches.
The internet changes rapidly and new trends create many opportunities and red herrings – no doubt this move will create it’s fair share. However, inventory owners and service providers should be well placed in this change as online marketing become increasingly about building reach and trust with users through peer to peer networks.
Interesting times ahead.
