Comments on: DMO’s can learn from Google Labs City Tour

By: Jeff

Jeff — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 13:12:09 +0000

I disagree, I think Google's statistical and algorithmic approach will eventually rule the day. At first, it is certainly much easier to pay someone, or rely on DMOs, to make meaningful routes and tours with Google Maps. But that method doesn't scale when you're talking about doing it for every location on the planet. Google (and others--including us at Openplaces) are experimenting with the semantic web to organize data (or travel data in this case) in a meaningful way for the end user. Think about Gmail's spam filter. Google doesn't use linguistic filters to track spam, nor do they have people on staff who manually look for spam in our inboxes. Instead, they use statistical algorithms that are altered and improved when users click the "Report Spam" button. The algorithm gets smarter at recognizing spam when more users use it. This method scales very well. The same can be done (we hope!) for travel information.

By: todd

todd — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 18:20:10 +0000

Hi Josiah,
Thank you for your comments. Fortunately / Unfortunately, Google uses computer algorithms to do the work of helping with tour routes on the City Tour Maps. They won’t have the people power necessary to create relevant maps for each community in the world. I believe it’s going to be up to DMO’s. CVB’s and other regional groups to use Google services to create maps that are actually useful to travelers.

By: Discover Anywhere Mobile - Interesting Technology: Google City Tours

Discover Anywhere Mobile - Interesting Technology: Google City Tours — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 17:33:58 +0000

[...] Lucier says “Google is no threat to DMO’s and Visitor and Convention Bureaus” but notes that is shoes what DMO’s should be doing. I agree and in fact at some level [...]

By: Josiah from HotelMarketingStrategies.com

Josiah from HotelMarketingStrategies.com — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 01:55:11 +0000

Good analysis. I’ll be interested to see how Google brings in local knowledge to this tool…it’s probably just a matter of time before they start embedding customer reviews for local businesses. I don’t see the revenue model as-is?

On a slightly different note: I like your idea of providing a video version of each blog post. That must add time to the publishing process, but it gives a nice alternative to reading text.