Google Maps has been doing a lot of testing and playing with its search engine results pages (SERPs) lately. I’ve seen the EarthBooker hotel booking engine tightly integrated with many hotels. At the same time, when I performed a longtail search for a hotel to stay at during the SMX West conference, I found some reviews (or other stuff Google seems to find relevant) folded directly into the SERPs (you used to have to click more info to see the reviews). And there’s also pictures being folded in from Google’s Panoramio.com.
I can’t do screenshots for some reason, so have a look at this copy-paste from the Google SERPs. Whereas reviews used to be accessible from the more info/reviews link, these are directly folded in, it seems. (Speaking of copy-pasting, is scraping a scraper theft? Lol)
Results 1–10 of about 2,914 for hotel America parkway near Santa Clara, CA –Modify search
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Embassy Suites Hotel Santa Clara-Silicon Valley – more info » 2885 Lakeside Drive, Santa Clara, CA (408) 496-6400 – … The Embassy Suites Santa Clara is an all-suites hotel located right at the intersection of Hwy 101 and Great American Parkway. This hotel offers an extended … hotelguide.com |
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Larkspur Landing Sunnyvale – more info » 748 North Mathilda Avenue, Sunnyvale, CA (408) 733-1212 – … The Arts and Crafts style hotel are located off Highway 101 within five miles of Moffett Field, Shoreline Amphitheater and Great America Parkway and seven miles … hotelguide.com |
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Holiday Inn Santa Clara-Great America – more info » 4200 Great America Parkway, Santa Clara, CA (800) 465-4329 – … Hotel on the corner. From San Francisco Int’l Airport (26 miles): South on Highway 101 to Great America Parkway/Bowers Avenue exit, turn left. … santaclara.org |
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Marriott-Silicon Valley – more info » 2700 Mission College Blvd, Santa Clara, CA (408) 988-1500 – … The Marriott in Santa Clara is located on Mission College just south of Great America Parkway; the hotel is well located for visiting the local businesses. … tripadvisor.com |
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5201 Great America Pkwy, Santa Clara, CA (408) 562-6017 … 5201 Great America Pkwy Santa Clara, CA 95054. Tel: 408-562-6017. Av Studio. 5201 Great America Pkwy. Santa Clara, CA, 95054. work 408-562-6017 … merchantcircle.com |
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ID Ventures America Inc – more info » 5201 Great America Pkwy # 270, Santa Clara, CA (408) 894-7900 … Take the Great America Parkway exit At the 5th light, Bunker Hill, make a right turn iDVA is in the Techmart building, the second floor, … idsoftcapital.com |
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American India Foundation – more info » 5201 Great America Pkwy, Santa Clara, CA (408) 982-9622 … Sankaran@aif.org / (408) 916-1973 American India Foundation 5201 Great America Parkway, Suite 526 Santa Clara, CA 95054 http://www.aif.org … yahoo.com |
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816 Ahwahnee Ave, Sunnyvale, CA (408) 734-4607 – 4 reviews … The Vagabond Inn Sunnyvale is located in Silicon Valley just two miles NASA Space Center and Great America Parkway, and five miles from the San Jose Convention … california-discounthotels.com |
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Global Knowledge Network Inc – more info » 5201 Great America Pkwy # 219, Santa Clara, CA (408) 969-8500 … It can be accessed by the driveway between the Techmart and Hyatt Hotel off the Great America Parkway … mathworks.com |
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2520 Mission College Blvd, Santa Clara, CA (408) 454-2280 … Turn Left on Great America Parkway After approximately ½ mile, exit right onto Mission College Blvd. You will pass the Marriot Hotel on your right-hand side and … enpirion.com |
Something else that I find noteworthy in regards to Google’s SERPs is that Google has folded in a hotel booking site that works with Google Earth into its Maps SERPs. The company in question is EarthBooker.com, which describes itself as having “80,000 hotels on Google Earth,” and offering “Global Discount Hotels on Google Earth.” The company that apparently owns Earth Booker is GlobeAssistant, whose copyright statement says that they are not affiliated with Google.
Try this search: http://maps.google.com/maps?q=casablanca+hotel
EarthBooker is the site for Le Royal Mansour. The same thing is going on with the Al Mounia: if you want to make a reservation, you’ll be sent to EB, but is now having its SERP link go to XS Web. Le Zenith’s also with EB. Earth Booker must be making a killing being the website for hotels that have none. Travelling the developing world? You’re likely to end up there.
Panoramio (this one is a Google company) has the page for the Casablanca Hyatt and the Hotel Barcelo. This is also true for the Riyadh Marriott. It appears to happen when the hotel in question has no particular page/site that Google is aware of. The Riyadh Marriott has its own page, and by the toolbar PR 5, I know that it’s indexed. Odd … and not so relevant. If I’m searching for “hotel + cityname,” chances are that I want to reserve a room, or find reviews. Panoramio offers pictures…
On a related note, the Alfa hotel in Riyadh gets the same treatment by Google Maps. The links goes to ~ge3b.kmz. It’d be interesting to see
Aaaand, as a bonus for those of you who read through all of this, have a look at this highly debatable use of sitelinks: http://www.google.com/search?q=casablanca+hotel
That better have GREAT CTR and 0 bounces (though bounces can be prevented, as dave N showed in WBF) because returning a NYC hotel for a “hotel + capital of Morocco” search is of dubious relevance. The map won’t show up despite repeated searches. Ironically, if you click to go to maps and it shows you the real Moroccan hotels: http://maps.google.com/maps?q=casablanca+hotel
On a related note, here’s the list of sites that I’ve found Google scrapes err, uses for reviews. These are the places you need to direct your satisfied clients to, in order to get them to review you.
- Travelocity
- Tripadvisor
- Priceline
- Mytravelguide
- Virtualtourist
- Holidaycheck.fr | HolidayCheck.de (spam?)
- GiataMedia
- Newyorkcity.com
- Booking.com
- Gayot.com
- Tablethotels.com
- NYmag.com
- 11870.com
- Hotelchatter.com
- Fastbooking.fr .it .de .es .co.uk etc. (Smart SEO use of the ccTLDs, incidentally.)
- Cityvox.fr
- Bestrestaurants.com.au
- Menulog.com.au
- Frommers
What do you guys think of the new Google Maps SERPs?
