

Google Introduces Hotel Search - processing
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/07/29/google-introduces-hotel-search/

======
rxin
Couple things that impressed me ...

\- Results are returned instantly. \- The heat map idea, coupled with
draggable area, is pretty cool.

Nice to see more competition and innovation in hotel search.

------
ComputerGuru
Gorgeous. If only they could do the same for apartment/house rentals!

Really, that would be perfect.

~~~
rxin
I think this is what you want: <http://www.padmapper.com/>

~~~
ComputerGuru
It doesn't have many listings, and their craigslist listings are incomplete
and inaccurate.

------
sek
<http://www.google.com/hotelfinder/>

------
hugh3
This is the reason why I'm long on GOOG. There's a huge world of revenue out
there, and they just have to reach out and grab it.

------
RyanDScott
I'm just connecting fictitious dots here, but it seems a rather crafty move to
launch a hotel search site in the midst of the Airbnb debacle. "Oh, I was
going to use Airbnb, then I heard about so-and-so's experience with them and
decided to book a hotel instead ... and oh look! A spiffy new hotel search
service!"

Which reminds me--I think there was an article linked here on HN not long ago
about Google's timing in releasing new products/features--can't find it now,
but makes me wonder if Google doesn't keep a few projects in the wings,
waiting for the opportune moment (i.e. best PR moment) to launch them.

------
Shenglong
There's good potential here for accurate price discrimination. If Google
collects and passes on user data (especially now that there's G+), they'll
know a banker can probably pay more for a hotel than a student.

I'm not sure if they'll put this into practice, but this sure gives them the
ability to.

~~~
hugh3
Thus creating a world where everybody struggles to look as poor as possible to
Google's algorithms in the hopes of getting a good price?

I'll just google "how do i gets my babby daddy to give me his welfare check"
ten times a day, and use a separate account when it comes time to research
private yachts. Cha-ching!

------
smackfu
(Not even a "beta" tagline, an "experiment".)

My go-to place for hotels is TripAdvisor. This doesn't seem to have an real
improvements.

