Word is that the clever gnomes at Google are going to drop a not so little surprise on the travel industry called Troogle. The current travel related searches get sent to the traditional OTAs (online travel agents). How long will that go on? Google is the master of paid search and extracting pennies from traffic. Lots of traffic=lots of pennies.

Throw in Google's cool maps and Google Earth…take a look at what they can do with they have now here. How long before Google takes a shot at the travel vendors? How much power does Google have to mess with the industry – we think a lot. How much power does it need? Maybe not so much.

Travel vendors like airlines are grabbing back their inventory from OTAs rather successfully. But then they have had only to dice with OTAs – middlemen who dis-intermediated travel agents and now run the risk of being dis-intermediated themselves.

The trouble is that airline fares remain opaque and, frankly, untrustworthy. Without the OTAs and meta sites like SideStep you never know when you see a good deal. Along comes Farecompare.com and does an excellent job of lifting the veil. The truth is so many people now use these third parties to seek out the deals and then go the airline site to buy. This typically saves $5 off the price and you get bonus miles to boot. Good luck cashing in the miles, but like the lemmings we are, we go for them anyway. Its become a game, but there you are.

So there is a disconnect that can be exploited. The key here is search and Google is the king of search. By developing its Checkout service (we have used it) and growing its own gmail user base, Google can tap into the disconnect and provided it can ensure transparent search, will move business.

The travel industry is unique – it has high cost of consumption (and going higher), but we still consume travel and we spend a lot of time in the hands of airline employees. Experienced travelers can regale you with stories about screwed up travel. The whole travel experience is a crap shoot. You are lucky when things go right from start to finish. Google can exploit so many "holes" in this process and look good.

Troogle is going to be "trooble" for the industry – starting with airlines that consistently cannot help themselves irritating their customers.

Word is that the clever gnomes at Google are going to drop a not so little surprise on the travel industry called Troogle. The current travel related searches get sent to the traditional OTAs (online travel agents). How long will that go on? Google is the master of paid search and extracting pennies from traffic. Lots of traffic=lots of pennies.

Throw in Google's cool maps and Google Earth…take a look at what they can do with they have now here. How long before Google takes a shot at the travel vendors? How much power does Google have to mess with the industry – we think a lot. How much power does it need? Maybe not so much.

Travel vendors like airlines are grabbing back their inventory from OTAs rather successfully. But then they have had only to dice with OTAs – middlemen who dis-intermediated travel agents and now run the risk of being dis-intermediated themselves.

The trouble is that airline fares remain opaque and, frankly, untrustworthy. Without the OTAs and meta sites like SideStep you never know when you see a good deal. Along comes Farecompare.com and does an excellent job of lifting the veil. The truth is so many people now use these third parties to seek out the deals and then go the airline site to buy. This typically saves $5 off the price and you get bonus miles to boot. Good luck cashing in the miles, but like the lemmings we are, we go for them anyway. Its become a game, but there you are.

So there is a disconnect that can be exploited. The key here is search and Google is the king of search. By developing its Checkout service (we have used it) and growing its own gmail user base, Google can tap into the disconnect and provided it can ensure transparent search, will move business.

The travel industry is unique – it has high cost of consumption (and going higher), but we still consume travel and we spend a lot of time in the hands of airline employees. Experienced travelers can regale you with stories about screwed up travel. The whole travel experience is a crap shoot. You are lucky when things go right from start to finish. Google can exploit so many "holes" in this process and look good.

Troogle is going to be "trooble" for the industry – starting with airlines that consistently cannot help themselves irritating their customers.