DigiMinded

I Love Me Some Search Options

Oh Google, how could you do this to me? I was already addicted to you and your endless data. I already spoke to you more times per week than my mother and all my friends combined. I already couldn’t imagine my life without your bold primary colors gracing my computer screen. And then you had to go and make my life even….easier?
 
Those statements may be a tad dramatic, but two weeks after the launch of Google Search Options I can officially say that I’m hooked. Approximately one month ago I began my search for Halong Bay overnight cruises, which proved to be tricky. Like most tourist attractions in Vietnam there are endless scam artists and copycat companies, so I wanted to find a reputable operator with positive traveler experiences. I found myself scanning the Google SERP for only the domains of travel forums I recognized, e.g. Travelfish and Thorn Tree.  Given that I have about as much patience as a 2-year-old, this took more time than I desire d. I also became frustrated as I kept coming across posts that were 4 years old – clearly out of date given the dynamic nature of Vietnam’s tourism industry. I could have gone to Advanced Search to further refine my search, but instead I decided to give up for the time being.

Enter Search Options. This time after searching for “halong bay cruises” I was able to easily display results from only forums that were posted in the past year. In a much shorter period of time I ended up with a list of 3 reputable cruise operators within my price range based on traveler experience. Wham, bam, thank you Google.

Now, Search Options is far from perfect. I would prefer to see more result types than just Videos, Forums and Reviews. Forums and Reviews support the research end of the buying cycle, but what about users who are close to the time of purchase? What about coupon sites? Shopping sites?  Now, not all of these would make sense in the context of searches (particularly ones around people and Wikipedia articles). But, Google could do something similar to Bing  (though not as spammy) and use related search data to provide relevant categories. Additionally, I would prefer to have a date option between past week and past year (you’re missing 51 weeks in there, Google).

Regardless of its imperfections, I tip my hat to The Big G for this feature – namely because it shows real insight into the way consumers make decisions. Users react very differently to separate types of media – particularly in the area of trust. A Forrester report indicated that 60% of consumers trust product ratings and reviews from other consumers, while only 21% trust forum posts.  A separate Nielsen study echoed this with 61% of consumers trusting reviews, while only 34% indicated trust of search engine ads. Depending on the nature of the search query, it makes perfect sense that a user is often looking for specific types of websites – and Google just made it that much easier to find them.

I’d love to see more features along these lines from Google and other engines. While search is not broken, there is still significant room for improvement of the user experience. Search features should always be firmly rooted in an understanding of the way users behave and the type of information they seek. It’s certainly been an exciting couple of weeks for search given the announcements at Google I/O and Searchology – what could be next?

Summer Travel Online and the Recession: It’s Not So Bad After All

Compete and Google recently released a joint study on the consumer outlook and trends for summer online travel bookings. Despite the recession, things are still looking up for online travel. While we’re no longer seeing the 30+% growth rates of 2008, bookings recovered significantly after a bad Q4, with a 17% year-over-year growth in March. In fact, March achieved more online travel bookings than any other month in history. This trend is expected to continue throughout the summer booking season, with only 14% of consumers stating that they plan to cut back on travel this year.

A few of the other highlights from this study:

•  Not surprisingly, the amount of money spent on travel is the area where consumers expect the economy to have the biggest effect. Runner-ups are the number of trips taken, duration of trips, and the amount of time spent shopping for deals or promos.
•  Consumers are frequently traveling to destinations closer to home (27%) and destinations that they’ve previously been to, either in the past year (45%) or more than a year ago (50%). Unfortunately the study did not provide a year-over-year comparison for this data, so we can’t determine how the answers may have changed during the recession.
• Like virtually every other online travel study has found, the Internet continues to be a key component for travel research and booking. 46% of respondents rely on the Internet for travel more than in the past. 
• One of the most common recession beliefs of online marketers is that consumers are taking more time to research their purchases than in the past. Interestingly, the Compete study didn’t show much of a difference. In 2009 will spend 2.6 weeks researching prior to booking summer travel (compared to 2.5 weeks in 2008), and the time between booking date and travel date has decreased from 15.8 weeks to 15.5 weeks. This isn’t nearly as great as an effect as I would have expected.
• The most appealing deals are discounts for advance purchase, free “extras” or “add ons,” and free nights for multi-night trips. The least appealing are credits toward future purchases, discounts for bundle packages, and gift cards to partners or affiliates.

While nothing in this study is truly groundbreaking, it does provide some interesting insights regarding the effects of the recession on summer travel. The key takeaways are that consumers are still booking vacations but are more price-conscious, and promotions are crucial. Consumers especially respond to special rates that reward them for booking early, as well as promotions that add value to their travel for the same cost, such as free breakfast or tickets to attractions. Now more than ever it is imperative that travel marketers be creative in the value that they are providing to consumers.