Google is confusing the Aussies

The Times happily gives over a page lead today to a potentially explosive court case in Australia.

According to Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, Google is apparently not doing enough to "expressly distinguish" the difference between paid-for advertising (sponsored links) and natural search results.

[Full ACCC citation here]

How strange. Sponsored links boxes are clearly labelled as such, whether they appear at the top of a page or down the right hand side.

Google has reacted pretty strongly to the action.

"Google Australia believes that these claims are without merit and we will defend against them vigorously. They represent an attack on all search engines and the Australian businesses, large and small, who use them to connect with customers throughout the world."

Peter Coroneos, chief executive of the Internet Industry Association, has also waded into the row:

"The internet industry has always had a positive relationship with the ACCC. It's very unfortunate that the ACCC has decided to pursue a litigious strategy against one participant, rather than consulting more broadly on an issue that affects the entire industry."

What made the Times report even more interesting was its choice for an image to accompany the story: a screen grab from Google.co.uk, featuring - you guessed it - a travel seach query.

Cheapflights and ThomsonFly came in first and fourth place respectively for sponsored search results and in first and second for organic results. [marks are on the original Times article]

Paul Dolman, CTO and head of paid search at digital marketing agency Spannerworks, who count both Cheapflights and Thomson as clients, was equally dismissive of the claim from Down Under.

In fact, he says, newspapers have been placing ads and editorial (the equivalent of paid-for and natural search in Google) "for centuries".

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Technorati tags: australia competition consumer

Travolution@ITBPhoCusWright--Brand & trust matter in the world of search

The future of search will be all about branding, according to Anthony Mayfield, head of content and media for Spannerworks.

"Technical tweaks will mean less than brand equity in the future," said Mayfield.

He advised travel suppliers to aim to build a community around their brand, but cautioned against diving straight into a WAYN.com type of endeavour.

But building trust is no easy task.

TripAdvisor is a case in point.

It has a loyal following to be sure, but there are plenty of sceptics who believe its parent company, Expedia, is pulling more of the strings than it lets on.

When asked if Expedia was likely to keep TripAdvisor at arm's length--or at least continue peddling the perception that it's kept at arms length--the audience's response was a resounding no.

Ouch.

Tricia Holly Davis, chief writer, Travolution

Travolution@PhoCusWright ITB

Those kind folk at PhoCusWright in the US have invited Travolution to their European spring conference, taking place during this year’s ITB in Berlin.

As well as blogging live from the two-day event on Thursday 8 and Friday 9 March, I will be appearing on a panel to discuss user-generated content on both days.

Also on the panel, one of the conference’s talkback sessions, will be Marc Charron (managing director, TripAdvisor Europe), Patrick Landman, (managing director, Clearstays) and Daniele Mancini (e-business director, Costa Crociere).

For the full programme and details on how to attend this prestigious event, visit the PhoCusWright@ITB web site.

This will be the second time Travolution has attended one of PhoCusWright’s conferences in Europe, following the event in Brussels last September.

• A round-up of our live blogging from the Brussels event
• Madeleine Wood, from Spannerworks, also sent this despatch from PhoCusWright’s landmark event in Hollywood, California, last November

Meanwhile, PhoCusWright analyst John Bray will be speaking at the Travolution Summit on the 24 April in London.

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Spannerworks acquisition overshadowed

While all hell was breaking loose over the Thomas Cook-MyTravel merger, announced earlier today, readers may be interested to learn of another significant ownership change.

Spannerworks, the Brighton-based digital marketing agency, headed by Arjo Ghosh, has been snapped up by rival US giant iCrossing for a cool £40 million.

Rumours of a deal between Spannerworks and a US search company have been circulating for a few weeks, but the purchase by iCrossing, which counts ex-MySpace chairman Richard Rosenblatt in the same position within the team, is a major achievement for Ghosh and the team.

Spannerworks will continue to operate out of Brighton in the UK, with Don Scales and Jeff Herzog from iCrossing joining its board of directors.

Ghosh started the agency just ten years ago and it has grown steadily to now have a staff of 70.

The agency has also had some significant wins in the travel sector in the past year, including contracts to work with the likes of Thomson and Cheapflights.

Last year Spannerworks also hired Antony Mayfield as its first head of content and media – signalling its intent to add elements of social media into its search marketing strategies for clients.

[Read Mayfield’s personal blog here]

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Travolution@ABTA 2006 - Social media bursts out

Travolution has been busy here today, hosting a series of sessions that attempted - and suceeded, we felt - to summarise the world of Web 2.0 and its impact on travel.

It was actually rather interesting watching the reaction of not a majority, but a sizeable chunk of the delegates when listening to our trio of speakers - Travolution boss Simon Ferguson, Ed Whiting from Comtec and Dean Harvey from Spannerworks.

Many people, in part thanks to the recent Google deal and general mainstream media coverage, have now heard of YouTube.

MySpace registers somewhere on most radars, too - but throw names like Bebo, Technorati, Digg, Del.icio.us, or terms like mash-up, into the mix and some people start shifting in their seats a little.

It is crucial that travel companies - and there are many of them here - understand, despite the challenges of the brave new world, that there is actually a vast world of opportunity out there.

The travel industry is full of creative people. Channel that creativity into blogging, videos and social media tools and the world of Web 2.0 need not be something to be frightened of, but something to embrace.

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Travolution@WTM-Those Promiscuous Punters

The online travel market is a decade old, but despite 10 years of impressive growth and success, online has not engendered the loyalty and trust of consumers, John Bray, vice-president advisory services, PhoCusWright, told delegates during the Travolution conference at World Travel Market.

Rather, Bray likened the current online marketplace to a bazaar, where "consumers are walking from place to place and are not sure what they will find, what the prices will be and what inventory will be available. That has left consumers with a lack of loyalty."

Maz Darvish, CEO, Internet Business Group, agreed that the promise of lower prices on the internet means travel companies have become their own worst enemies.

"There are an overwhelming number of products online and that has led to price comparison sites, but one side effect of all of this price comparison is that brand value has been eroded and the consumer has become promiscuous."

This is likely to change, however, thanks to the advent of Web 2.0.

"Until now, online travel has been all about bringing the lowest prices to consumers, but
Web 2.0 will change that," said Bray.

Indeed, the next generation of search will go beyond delivering the cheapest price and take into account consumers' interests and passions.

"All this talk about passion and promiscuity...who knew online travel was such a sexy industry?", mused Dean Harvey, director, Spannerworks

Tricia Holly Davis
Freelance Journalist

Travolution@WTM--Age of Enlightenment

It's not often you hear an educated, sober adult describe a conversation with a teenager as "enlightening", but that is exactly how Arjo Ghosh, CEO of Spannerworks, refers to his interactions with Gen Y'ers.

"The way 13 to 17 year olds search the web is completely different from the traditional search methods," Ghosh told delegates attending the Travolution conference at World Travel Market.

"People often refer to the first generation of web users as digital immigrants. Well,the next generation are digitial natives," said Ghosh.

Anyone not switched on to how the travellers of tomorrow behave now, and how they will eventually make buying decisions, is potentially losing the next generation of web users, Ghosh warned.

Enlightening conversation with teenagers. Who knew? Based on the audience's approving reaction, Ghosh definitely has a point.

Tricia Holly Davis
Freelance Journalist

A bluffers guide to social media

Antony Mayfield from Spannerworks writes:

Are you clear on exactly what social media is? Social media, which includes blogs, wikis, MySpace and YouTube, is not just a new set of media outlets or channels: is it is a fundamental re-writing of the rules of how media works.

The rate of innovation and change in online media at the moment is incredible. Many people are likely to have heard stats like "one blog is created every second" and "100 million downloads are made from YouTube every day" without necessarily understanding what lies behind them, or what they mean for their brand.

If you work with a major brand, chances are that social media is already affecting your communications and even your business.

For instance: 88% of the top 100 brands have a Wikipedia entry (a community-edited encyclopaedia) in the first 20 results on Google (most people don't look further than the first twenty results); MySpace delivers more traffic to HMV.co.uk than the Microsoft search engine MSN (now rebranding as Live).

Social media is best understood as a group of new kinds of online media, which share most or all of the following characteristics:

* Participation: social media encourages contributions and feedback from everyone who is interested. It blurs the line between the concept of media and audience.

* Openness: most social media services are open to feedback and participation. They encourage voting, feedback, comments and sharing of information. There are rarely any barriers to accessing and making use of content - password protected content is frowned on.

* Conversation: whereas traditional media is about "broadcast", content transmitted or distributed to an audience, social media is better seen as conversational, two-way.

* Community: social media allows communities to form quickly and communicate effectively around common interests - be that a love of photography, a political issue or a favourite TV show.

* Connectedness: Most kinds of social media thrive on their connectedness, via links and combining different kinds of media in one place.

Antony Mayfield, head of content and social media, Spannerworks

Spannerworks has produced a fantastic book - What is Social Media? - available free to download here. NB: Creative Commons Copyright on P32