Mountain View, California — Search is what Google is best at! With its controversial ITA Software acquisition finally approved by the Department of Justice back in April, the search engine behemoth has ventured on to its latest experiment to make further inroads into one of the most popular vertical search markets: travel with the Hotel Finder, which as its name suggest helps users to define key lodging preferences in hopes of finding the perfect hotel for their travel needs.
Basically, it is an hotel search engine, but it is bundled with an interesting user interface that is way more useful than its recently promoted successor Google+ allowing you to filter hotel search results by neighborhood, price range and star ratings as well as see exactly where the hotel is located on Google maps and peruse reviews from Google members.
It employs interesting visuals to draw in viewers. For example, “To help you figure out where the action is, Hotel Finder shines a ‘tourist spotlight’ on the most visited areas of U.S. cities,” explains software engineer Andrew McCarthy.
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The tool will select an initial pattern based on what is most desired or the user can draw a shape around the area where he or she wants to stay, e.g. on the ocean or along Sunset Boulevard.
“In the ‘Compared to typical’ section, you can see how each hotel’s price compares to its historical average, so you can tell if it is good value for your stay,” McCarthy added. “You no longer need to open a new browser tab for each hotel result, and then go hunting around for pictures. When you select a hotel in Hotel Finder, we show you a collage of images, Google Places reviews, and key information right within the list. You can even use keyboard shortcuts (“J” and “K”) to flip through the results quickly, just like in Google Reader and News.”
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Users can add hotels to a shortlist to keep track of the ones they are interested in. Type in the city and the dates of your arrival and you are presented with an easy-to-read, organized list of potential hotels. It also points you to various booking options. You can also drag the box on the map view in order to refine the areas covered.
Each entry is easily expandable with just one click, giving you a streamline overview of the property. Click the photos to view a larger slide show, click anywhere else to close the detail panel. It is the fastest way to check out a long list of hotels without ever leaving the page.
As you move along, you can add potential hotel picks to a Shortlist which stays up at the top of the page so that you do not have to keep hopping back and forth searching for them, also, you can compare prices before you decide who to book through.
Google’s Hotel Finder is so simple, it is awesomely superb. The program allows you to book either through Hotels.com, Expedia, Booking.com, Priceline or the hotel’s own website.
And of course, with preferences to search by price, hotel class and rating, it is so simple to optimize on hotels that suit your style and budget. Click on the “Book” button in either view and a list of external options are shown.
Interestingly, Google is not the only search engine to eye travel as a vertical. Last month Baidu.com disclosed that it would invest $306 million in Qunar.com, an online travel site planning an IPO.
But the show does not ends just there, the move that the travel industry is keenly watching is what Google will do with its ITA acquisition. Earlier this month TechCrunch reported that the company is planning to launch an integrated-flight search product shortly.