Google tips

Google, a key partner in the Prince Harry-founded Travalyst coalition, has been a leading authority on measuring airline emissions.

Good morning from Skift. It’s Thursday, July 25, and here’s what you need to know about the business of travel today. 

When it came down to it, Google didn’t want to anger its core customers — advertisers — and this week announced it won’t phase out third-party cookies in its Chrome browser as planned.

Sabre wanted to know how generative AI could improve the customer-service experience for hotel operators, so the company made that topic a category for an internal innovation competition last August.

HomeToGo, the short-term rental price comparison business, plans to go a couple of steps further than Airbnb to comply with the California junk fee law that kicks in July 1.

Early in the COVID pandemic and at a time when travel cancellations were on the rise, Google said it wanted to “help Hotel ads partners minimize risk while driving future bookings in a responsible manner.” To do that, it expanded an advertising option known as Commissions (per stay) that let hotel partners only pay a commission on their ads after the guest stay had occurred.Now, nearly four years later and as international travel is approaching pre-pandemic levels, according to UN Tourism, Google has announced that on October 31, 2024 it will end Commissions (per stay) and another low-risk ad product, Commissions (per conversion), which launched in 2018.

Back in 2021, a 22-year-old from Arkansas named Trevor Rainbolt shuttered himself in his Los Angeles apartment to memorize the world. For months, he spent his time studying Google Street View from his desk chair. Delivery drivers handed over his meals; a barber came to style his hair. After a while, his memory grew planetary. When you see cabbage-like plants thriving along the sides of a Russian country road, he learned, you’re most likely looking at Sakhalin Island. On a bridge lined with pea-green pavement? You’re above a river in Indonesia’s Central Kalimantan province. If your vista, but for the sweep of golden grasslands, screams South Africa, you’ll be in Eswatini.

Spending time in graveyards and libraries may not be everyone’s idea of summer fun, but for those interested in finding their roots, collecting information about one’s ancestors a “family” vacation. Sure, genealogy sites have made researching one’s ancestral history much easier with digitized document archives, family-tree-building software and community forums. But not is online.

Early in 2020, Airbnb diverted about $800 million in spend on performance marketing — mostly Google keyword advertising — and tilted more toward marketing its brand in avenues like video, social media and public relations.

Mirai reports a significant decrease in direct hotel bookings and Google Hotel Ads traffic in the EU due to DMA implementation.

Good morning from Skift. It’s Wednesday, May 29. Here’s what you need to know about the business of travel today.

Google is fully in its Gemini era. That’s what the CEO said during the tech giant’s latest developer conference, and we’re seeing it with the company’s own consumer-facing products, and also through partnerships with travel companies.

For the first time ever, Southwest Airlines flight prices now appear on Google Flights. This is a historic move, as the discount airline is famous for only displaying trip costs on its own website and app. The improved pricing transparency makes it substantially easier to compare flight options on a single platform.

Skift Research reported earlier this year that Booking and Expedia — two giants of online travel — are experiencing slower growth and greater pressure on profit margins as they face more competition from Google.

Generative artificial intelligence has made a big leap in the past few weeks, some of the most significant advancements since it came on the scene 18 months ago.

Big news from Southwest Airlines this week as the airline changed a long-standing policy and allowed its fares to be listed on a third-party website for the first time. Travelers will now be able to find Southwest flight pricing and details on Google Flights, a move the carrier calls a “pilot partnership.”

Searching for Southwest flights just got easier.

Google Flights is one of the top tools for finding the best possible airfare. The Google Flights search engine aggregates nearly all available flights based on your specified date and location parameters. Once you find your perfect flight, you can click through to book directly with the airline. You can even compare cash and award pricing by using a browser extension.

Something that was once seen as unlikely now seems to be a reality: Southwest Airlines is on Google Flights. 

The premium edition of the Gemini generative AI chatbot will soon have the ability to build travel plans using plain language with a simple command.

Follow these tips so you can keep on writer even when writer’s block strikes at the most inconvenient of times.