

Google to buy Frommer's - rryan
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390444772404577587131075164366.html

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rwhitman
Having ran a travel directory site for a bit I'm always interested in Google's
ambitions in the space. I still haven't completely understood why Google
bought Zagat, and now Frommer's is a bit odd as well. My theories -

1) Small business relationships - well established relationships with long-
established small businesses that may never have tried advertising online.
Every listing is a potential new Adwords customer. I know someone who worked
with Zagat and the 1st thing they did was swap out the ad network, so I'd say
this is reason #1. These guys have very trusting and loyal ad partners

2) Brand recognition and perception of quality control in consumer listings.

3) Databases - its really hard to get a complete database of small business
info from foreign countries. Googlebot is just never going to as good of a job
cleaning up this content as a decent editorial staff. These guys have been
intricately compiling and updating DBs of eateries and attractions for
decades.

4) The guidebooks - I doubt the revenue from selling paper guidebooks means
much to Google, but it might be a lesson in selling digital content, who knows

5) They acquired them both for a steal. A bunch of editors working for
peanuts, content and new adwords customers scooped up at a fire sale.

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gdilla
Google paid 151M for Zagat - is that considered cheap? Would be surprised if
the Frommer's price was even half that. [http://www.mercurynews.com/breaking-
news/ci_21301531/google-...](http://www.mercurynews.com/breaking-
news/ci_21301531/google-buys-frommers-travel-business-will-add-it)

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jonhohle
When you think that Zagat - a world renowned service for restaurant ratings
for over 30 years - was purchased for about 15% of what Instagram cost, I
would say it's cheap.

I know new whiz-bang startups can generate a lot of cash (if they are lucky),
but it always surprises me how low the valuation of old guard companies can
be.

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mcherm
Comparing to Instagram, which even its defenders admit is an outlier, is poor
choice.

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Uhhrrr
Google buys Zagat HN discussion, from Sept last year:

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2974271>

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kaizenfury7
When I planned a trip to Spain, I use the Frommers 3 days guide in Madrid to
plan activities.

<http://www.frommers.com/destinations/madrid/0056020791.html>

I then used Google Maps and created a custom map with all the suggested sites,
activities, and eateries. I was also able to share it with my friends and
collaborate over it.

I think this is a great opportunity for Google to streamline all this and make
another great product.

~~~
squidi
I've do the the same thing for my trips and think it's great. If Google could
integrate the travel guide content with the "view offline" feature in GMaps it
would reduce the need for roaming too.

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mlinksva
I haven't looked at any in a very long time, but I recall Frommer's guidebooks
as having the feel of McDonald's, relative to say Lonely Planet.

I'm eager for the Wikimedia Travel project to get underway
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Travel_Guide>

~~~
koyote
What about <http://wikitravel.org> ?

~~~
mlinksva
Assuming the Wikimedia Travel project gets off the ground, Wikitravel and its
forks, or at least the material and active users and admins of these, will
migrate to the new project.

Wikitravel is pretty good, but uneven depth of coverage. I usually read at
least the main Wikipedia article and Wikitravel article about places I'm going
to, and web search and sites like Yelp for details. Together this is a huge
improvement over guidebooks. With more attention that a Wikimedia travel site
would get, I'd expect even more/better for the types of things I look at
Wikitravel for now, probably meaning I'd need to search/yelp/etc just a bit
less.

(Of course most people would get to Wikimedia Travel via Google, and they
could use WT content, so it'd be a win for Google just like Wikipedia, even if
it made their purchase of Frommer's worth less.)

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squarecat
I'd speculate that, just as with the Zagat purchase, they were singularly
interested in a brand with recognition in those 40 years and older.

(Maybe since they are seeing the Google brand erode in quality and value to
those under 40...)

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MartinCron
Do the Frommer's and Zagat brands mean anything to those under 40? My instinct
is that they probably don't.

~~~
trickjarrett
I'm in my late twenties and I know both brands though I had almost zero
interaction with Zagat in any purposeful sort of way. I never sought out a
list of Zagat rated restaurants. I did use Frommer's for trip planning though
often it was browsing in the bookstore or library rather than purchasing.

~~~
squarecat
Interesting, though not entirely surprising. I'd surmise that your usage is
representative the maximum utility for most people under 40.

Did you seek them out or did you discover them incidentally while in the
respective "Travel" sections?

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fishcakes
Vertical integration. Those who own content distribution (I.e. search) buy up
the content. This solidifies / extends their unique ability to deliver
relevant content.

A good analogy would be Comcast buying NBC. Of course google is at a higher
scale than any previous distributor, so they can easily buy up lots of small
but very valuable comtent producers.

Scary.

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Flemlord
I wonder how this will affect Microsoft's Win 8 travel app, which seems to be
using exclusively Frommer's content.

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so_says
Frommer's has a rich licensing program. MS is only one of their partners. You
can see how prominently their content is displayed in the NY Times travel
section.
[http://travel.nytimes.com/travel/guides/europe/britain/engla...](http://travel.nytimes.com/travel/guides/europe/britain/england/overview.html)
I know there are many others, but they are escaping me at the moment.

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colinsidoti
I'm guessing many here don't know this, but travel agents today (yes they
still exist) often recommend Frommer's guides.

I run KangaCruise.com, we considered syndicating Frommer's guides for
destinations, and actually still haven't written it off.

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so_says
"Google paid around $25 million for Frommer's, according to a person briefed
on the deal, which hasn't yet closed. But the deal is more significant for its
strategy than its price tag."
[http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000087239639044477240457758...](http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390444772404577587131075164366.html)

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rnernento
Awesome, can't wait to see integration into google maps / location based
services.

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executive
this should help Google's antitrust battle.

