What Google is Up to In Travel

It isn't unusual when a firm buys an asset that will help build an important new business. It is rare for a firm to buy a key asset and then sell it again, in less than 12 months. And that's what Google did with Frommer's Travel, part of a broader effort to build a mobile commerce revenue stream to augment its advertising revenue streams.

In saying it wants to turn intention into action, Google is providing more of its own content to Web surfers by adding information on hotels and restaurants around the world, a bid to attract users and advertisers from sites such as Yelp.

Travel is an important category for Google as it allows Google sites to become a destination. That's why Google bought Zagat and travel information provider ITA Software. 

Google looks to become a one-stop-shop for not only product search but anything to do with the process of gathering information about travel and destinations. But 


Google has other travel related interests, ranging from mobile payments to "local deals." In some ways, airline schedules are another form of "search." But Google would seem to have ambitions across a broader swath of the shopping process.