Comments on: TripAdvisor Reviews and Google Places – the Saga Continues

By: Phil

Phil — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 18:03:16 +0000

You may as well forget it, John P. Google seems to have largely lost interest in TA reviews and now displays “Google reviews” prominently instead (for all they are worth). TripAdvisor reviews are nothing more than a tiny footnote in Places listings now. Everyone’s in the same boat, I don’t lose sleep over things I can’t control it or do anything about.

By: Tenerife accommodation

Tenerife accommodation — Sun, 22 May 2011 15:16:15 +0000

Any update on this Mike? Many of our competitors have TA reviews from TA.co.uk and TA.ie and TA.in – incredibably frustrating when we’ve had all 185 of ours taken off!

John P

By: Big G vs. The Trip Advisor – Smackdown Continues in The Review Ring | Understanding Google Maps & Local Search

Tue, 01 Feb 2011 13:32:16 +0000

[...] ask why TA has gone on their very public PR tear. Posting at their blog and across twitter via the #AskSteve hashtag, their CEO continues to answer (albeit at a trickle) questions about the [...]

By: Mike

Mike — Tue, 25 Jan 2011 10:11:29 +0000

@Phil
No Google’s actions are self interested as well… although I find the new blended results with the link to other review sites and the link to Places not objectionable at all. To me, it is less intrusive than the 7 Pack. So while they are showing Places high in the search, you are not obligated in any way to go into places… Whether a Place page deserves the link there on some other criteria I don’t know but currently the rules are that it is Google’s sandbox and they can make the “editorial decision” that they choose.

As you have gleaned.. the sidelines is the ONLY safe place in an American Football game…

By: Phil At TripAdvisorWatch

Phil At TripAdvisorWatch — Tue, 25 Jan 2011 08:55:55 +0000

PS Apologies for the stray apostrophe.

By: Phil At TripAdvisorWatch

Phil At TripAdvisorWatch — Tue, 25 Jan 2011 08:54:29 +0000

Obviously, Google is not scraping TA reviews simply for the benefit of the consumer – it is to make Places more useful, bearing in mind that they probably want to use Places as a direct booking engine in the future. At that point it will clearly be in direct competition with TripAdvisor.

I personally do not want (as I’ve said elsewhere) Places results forced upon me in the general search results – if I want Places results I’m perfectly capable of clicking the little word “Map” that has always been conveniently positioned among the many search options.

I find TripAdvisor’s sanctimonious attitude and ‘only thinking of the consumer’ claims hard to swallow, given it’s track record of buying out its competitors (anyone remember Travel Library? bought and left to wither by TA) in an attempt to create its own monopoly.

With a rudimentary grasp of American Football I’m happy to sit on the sidelines and let them knock seven bells out of each other – I’m not pitching in for either of them!

By: MiriamEllis

MiriamEllis — Tue, 25 Jan 2011 01:30:21 +0000

@Mike,
Good questions. From Kaufman’s point of view, at least as I read it, he feels that his company’s content is being used as Google’s bread and butter in the hotel sector. From your comment, one could view the situation differently: that Google is only taking a few reviews and then sending a massive amount of links TripAdvisor’s way. It’s a complex issue. But the use of the word ‘forcing’ is strong and indicative of how TA feels about it.

By: Ryan

Ryan — Mon, 24 Jan 2011 22:34:48 +0000

It always baffles me how people think Google owes them something when they aren’t paying for any Google service. TripAdvisor receives a significant amount of traffic to their site from Google Places and Google natural search, yet they’re complaining. It seems to me that TripAdvisor is upset with Google for doing the same thing they are forcing hotels to do. Hoteliers feel they are being forced by the OTAs to lower rates if they want to have a good presence on their site, thus providing additional content to TripAdvisor.

By: Mike Blumenthal

Mike Blumenthal — Mon, 24 Jan 2011 22:31:37 +0000

@Miriam
Is he objecting to Places Search and the loss of rank for TA pages? Or is he grumping about the high visibility of Review links on Places listings?

Google never does anything more than scrape a few reviews and link back to his reviews on both the front page and the places page….

By: MiriamEllis

MiriamEllis — Mon, 24 Jan 2011 21:21:33 +0000

Them’s fightin’ words! My eyebrows rose most particularly over this:

“Links to Google Places appear at the top of the ‘natural’ search despite being an inferior product to sites that are dedicated to review collection and therefore more useful to the consumer. ”

Self-serving or not, I am glad to see a high-level company saying this, for all of the reasons we already know so well about ongoing issues with Places.

Mike, your football analogy is very funny and smart and while I see no point in jumping into the fray, I am glad that this conversation is happening out in the open rather than the issue with TripAdvisor/Google being something behind the scenes that none of us can really get a handle on.

TripAdvisor feels it is being forced by Google to hand over its hard-earned content. I get that now. I didn’t before. Do I think Trip Advisor would be any more of a do-gooder organization than Google if theyhad that 80% market share? Cynically, no. Like you, I am not fond of many of the aspects of capitalism, but all in all, I am really glad I read what Steve Kaufer has written about this. Things are starting to feel a little clearer.