Is Google Maps a travel site? Discuss
While flicking through Internet Retailing (not the most gripping of trade press reads, but it has some good retail stats-based case studies) I came across the article “Travel Remains Buoyant” which included a Hitwise-sourced table of the Top 15 UK Travel Sites, as ranked by share of visits.
Google Maps UK was ranked #1 with 8.32% - way ahead of #2 which gets 2.5% of UK internet visits. Languishing at #8, #9 and #10 were Expedia, TripAdvisor and Lastminute.com respectively with a measly ~1.5% each.
(And Opodo was nowhere to be seen in the Top15, to my personal disdain, because I bust a gut launching that travel brand online just after 9/11; I remember we had to re-design the banner ad creatives at the last minute - no pun intended - because they had images of planes flying passed skyscrapers – you couldn’t have scripted such bad timing!)
Anyway, back to Google Maps - which incidentally Hitwise also ranks at #4 (.com), with Google Earth at #11. Is Google Maps a travel site? I’m not surprised it’s top of any category – personally I would literally be lost around town without it. And yes, in that respect I suppose it helps me to plan my travel. But only in terms of day-to-day getting from A to B; not to plan my next beach holiday. I guess I’ve always associated the travel sector with the holidays industry, but I suppose it could include day-to-day travel?
So a ‘navigation tool’ maybe. But a travel site? Or, is it my definition of ‘travel’ that needs to be re-calibrated? Or, am I missing a trick in terms of my holiday planning? Should I be checking out the snow conditions on Google Earth before booking my skiing holiday?
Tags: Expedia, Google Earth, Google Maps, Hitwise, Internet Retailing, Lastminut.com, Opodo, Travel Sites, TripAdVisor
