The new expert is you!
Not too many years ago, a physical visit to a travel agent’s office was the norm.
Today, our ultra-connected world of instant information has made it easy for even an inexperienced traveler to plan a trip, book flights, find detailed information on hotels, resorts, and activities, and even figure out how to speak some basics phrases in a foreign language.
With such immense quantities of information at our fingertips, it’s no wonder that the world of travel has been completely revolutionized by technology.
If we’ve come this far in such short order, what does the future of travel look like?
Lets step back 10 years; before owning a handheld device or tablet was the norm, before Google Earth, before we carried all the information known to man around with us every waking moment.
In this simplistic society, travel was an immense undertaking that required an extreme amount of research and resourcefulness–it was easier and often beneficial to call a travel agent.
Why? Because they had faster and easier access to information.
These days, with so much technology and information available on the internet; a savvy traveler can easily arrive at their hotel in a foreign land, find a peer-approved restaurant, and learn how to politely ask for the menu in a native tongue, with only the assistance of a smart phone.
With so much information at our fingertips, the new challenge is finding and determining the best ones to use! Enter Google.
Google Flights-
Google now offers the ability to search for and book commercial flights online with a number of fast and helpful tools, including the ability to graphically analyze lowest fares and map less expensive alternate airport options on a map.
Gone are the days of running search after search trying to think of every possible city pairing on every possible date of travel.
Now you can map it right in Google Flights!
Flight Options Layered on Map using Google Flights
Remember stopping at convenience stores or rolling down your window at a stoplight to ask for directions? Not anymore! Maps make it easy to find your destination, wherever in the world it may be.
By looking up an address, a key phrase, or a business type (ie. hotels, restaurants, museums, etc), anyone can find what they are looking for, anywhere in the world.
Maps can also help determine the best routes to get to your destination, and using street view, you can virtually walk to your destination in order to note landmarks, what streets look like, and even what the doorway or inside of your destination looks like.
Google Reviews-
As savvy consumers, we often look to our peers to tell us what is good, and what is bad, about future purchases.
With Google Reviews, we can learn about restaurants, hotels, resorts, activities, as well as specific products.
This can be extremely helpful in planning a trip to somewhere you have never been.
How is the service at this hotel? Is it easy to find? What amenities do they offer? What are the recommended dishes at a specific restaurant? Where do the locals eat? Without calling the business, Google Reviews offer an unique look into the experiences of past customers; what they loved, what they hated, what they suggest.
As such, it is an invaluable resource for the traveler who doesn’t want to end up at a hotel with bed bugs or a restaurant with terrible service.
Google Translate-
You’ve arrived in Spain, and you have no idea how to ask where the bathroom is, how to say you need a taxi, or how to simply say “Hello”. Not to fear! Google Translate is here! While all translation devices often have trouble determining the correct tense or order of phrases, it is extremely valuable to be able to lookup a word and find the local way of saying it.
As a traveler in a foreign country, you will inevitably become experienced in the art of charades, but the communication barrier does not need to inhibit your ability to express your needs and wants to others.
Simply look up a word in your native language, pick the language you wish to translate to, and you have a quick reference to either try to pronounce or to show to a shop keeper to help them understand what you are looking for.
YouTube-
What does YouTube have to do with travel you ask? Just about everything! By searching for a destination, event, or city, you can find many videos chronicling what to do, where to go, and how to get there.
These videos are sometimes more helpful for travelers than maps, as they can show the on-foot route to get from the bus station to an attraction.
Many videos also contain interesting tidbits about the area you are going to visit so that you may have a greater understanding of the history, architecture, or culture of an area.
Google Hangouts-
You’re in Dubai, experiencing the luxury that has evolved from a simple coastal fishing village, when you get a pang of homesickness.
With today’s hyperconnectivity, your friends and family back home are only a click away.
Hangouts offer an exciting way to not only stay connected with friends and family while you travel, but to actually share with them all of the exciting new things you are experiencing! With hangouts, you can see up to 9 members of your friends and family in real time, wherever you are.
Field Trip-
One of the most exciting parts of being a traveler is stumbling across great adventures. “Getting lost” in whatever city or area you are in can be one of the most exhilarating ways to find unique experiences while traveling.
Perusing the streets of Florence is arguably one of the best ways to see the city; and Field Trip can help you as you wander. This app (free for iOS and Android smartphones!) will alert you when there is something of interest near you.
For instance, as you wander through cobblestone streets and alleyways, Field Trip will send a notification to you suggesting that you take a small detour to see a statue, shop, fountain, museum, mural or other attraction that you may have otherwise missed.
As a traveler, finding unique and interesting stops is one of the joys of your adventure; don’t miss the sweet spots with this great app!
Field Trip App
Relatively undiscovered, but extremely useful, Google Now helps to organize your life in one place.
This app contains most of Google’s host of applications- Translate, Search, Gmail, Calendar, Drive, Google+, YouTube, Weather , News and more.
Google Now uses real time information for traffic, calendar appointments, and nearby attractions and events.
As a traveler, the stress of an airport can sometimes become overwhelming; keeping track of your luggage, boarding passes, and identification can become a huge burden.
Google Now can pull your boarding pass from your email, along with real-time information about your gate number, departure time, and route so you know if you need to make the cliche dash through the airport, or if you can stroll casually through customs.
The Google Now Mobile App
(communities and members)- Google+, despite consistently skeptical media and blog coverage, has evolved into a bustling community of intelligent and engaged people who love to share and gain knowledge.
Google+ allows you to potentially engage with not only other travelers, but locals, and people who frequent particular areas.
Google+ also offers extensive reviews connected with Google Reviews.
If you find a hotel you want to stay at, you can read it’s reviews, and even make sure that the people who reviewed it have similar interests as you by linking back to their Google+ profile.
In this way, Google has increased accountability on reviews (because your profile is linked to any reviews you write), as well as transparency of business quality.
The evolution and implications of Google+ are not completely clear, but it’s quite possible Google+, the “social layer,” woven through all of Google travel related products may inevitably flip the travel industry upside down.
Google Wallet-
While traveling through Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia, or the Americas, you or your loved ones may reach a point where you need some extra cash.
With Google Wallet, this can be done from your Gmail account via a Google Wallet account.
Transfers from bank accounts or Google Wallet are free, and a small percent fee is assessed to transactions done via credit or debit card.
Watch Google’s Wallet video to better understand how Wallet works for travelers.
Google Calendar-
tart planning and scheduling! Plan out your trip by the day! Set reminders to leave for the airport, or the market.
Build checklists using Google Tasks, now integrated into Google Calendars.
Google Drive-
While Google Drive may not seem like a travel tool, it can be invaluable to a traveler.
Upload all of your travel documents in one place, keep notes, confirmation paperwork and other important reminders stored and organized in various ways in the cloud.
Check out one of the newer products integrated to Drive called Google Keep for “sticky note” and to-do list tracking.
Google Keep boasts enhanced features, such as integrated photographs and voice recognition, as well.
Google Drive saves all of your work online, so that you can access it from anywhere, anytime.
Google Keep
Google continues to push the envelope in making the web evermore portable, durable and productive. From Android smartphones and tablets, to Chromebooks (starting at a mere $200 USD), Google really does offer instant access to the world in so many ways for travelers.
Google Search-
Emphasis is now being placed on “semantic search”, which seeks to improve search accuracy by understanding searcher intent and the contextual meaning of search terms.
There are a variety of ways in which Google’s search algorithm determines relevancy.
One area internet marketers are monitoring closely is the impact Google+ and “Circles” may have on search results.
For those not already familiar:
Google+ it is described as a built-in “social layer” that enhances many of Google’s products. The tight integration of Google+ across various Google products introduces new levels of social responsibility, transparency and relevancy to the web, revolutionizing the way we can now explore our world.
“Circles” are groups of people and businesses that you follow and share things with on Google+.
Increase search relevancy with Google+ and Circles
Helpful Tip: “Circling” travel experts and
people you trust may result in better and more accurate search results
when planning your next getaway, as travel websites and blogs people in
your Circles +1’d may show up higher in search results.As Google’s algorithm improves over time, your searches related to travel (ie planning your next beach vacation in Florida, researching ski resorts in Colorado, etc.) will result in more relevant sources of information. Accurate and relevant information at your fingertips will likely translate into travel experiences that meet (or even exceed) your expectations! Wouldn’t that be nice? Google Hotel Finder is yet another travel product worthy of further review in a future post, but here we show it integrated into search results:
Google Search for Hotels
Insiders will tell you; Google Glass is going to revolutionize the way we live; but will it revolutionize the way we travel as well? Imagine strolling the Champs d’Elysee when suddenly you are hit by the undeniable urge to take a photo of your surroundings.
So you say, “OK, glass, take a photo” and your view is instantly recorded.
Next say, “Ok, glass, find a cafe” and your glasses pull up a map or a list of options, after you pick one, on screen directions lead you, via GPS, to your destination.
No hiccups, no perilous taxi cab rides, no confusion of which direction to go.
For the savvy or timely traveler, Glass will change not only the way we travel, but the way we see the world.
On top of all of those amazing features, we can then upload those photos (or videos) to Google+ or elsewhere to share with our Circles and friends and family.
Don’t forget to leave a “Review” and upload a photo of the cafe you just enjoyed–for now using your mobile device will have to suffice.
Google Glasses for Travel
Note their acquisition of ITA Software, an innovator in travel technology. Google refers to ITA as the “Travel Technology’s Game Changer,” explaining their “world-class engineers and travel industry experts are solving the industry’s most complex computing challenges, and in doing so reshaping its very foundation.” For the latest on Google Travel, check out Google’s own Google+ Community here: Google Travel.
What do you think about Google and the travel industry?
What Google products do you find most useful and how do you utilize them for travel?
See You On The Beaches Of The World.............................
Paul A Smith
Work With Me
PS: How To Build Your Downline
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