Google has been using "onebox" results for travel related searches since at least October of 2005. I'm forced to wonder if, during the entirety of that period, Google's been sending the default link to Expedia. For example:
I searched for Seattle to New York and got:
Then clicked the "Flights from Seattle/Tacoma, WA to New York, NY" - the most obvious of the links, which sent me to:
This seems very un-Google-like... Am I the only one being served Expedia by default? I tried the searches in SF this morning and at home in Seattle tonight with the same results. More searches produced similar defaults:
- Hong Kong to Tapei
- Calcutta to Mumbai (interesting that they show "Bombay" in the results)
- Chicago to Denver
- London to Paris
The choices (Expedia, Travelocity, Priceline, Orbitz & Hotwire) represent the most popular travel booking sites, and there's already some inherent bias in serving those choices, but defaulting to Expedia seems like playing favorites...
Google must really like all those "Expedia.....dot cooooooooooooooom!" jingly commercials.
If you guys are still following this story, I found something very interesting: Randfish was right. (the alphabetical order has nothing to do)
I put the complete update of this issue in my website (non profit site)
https://victimsofexpedia.com/pixs/EXPEDIAatGoogle.pdf
Great post Rand. I wonder where users would rank this on the evilness scale? If you take a closer look, the Orbitz link contains the following in the URL: /GoogleFlightsRedirect That is clear proof to me that Google has a special deal with the flight providers.
I also find it suspicious that the organic results are crummy. There are no flight links even though the intention is of the search is fairly obvious. Not a single top 10 result helps me travel from Seattle to New York. Conspiracy theories may have to be thrown out, though, because an airport code search like "SEA to NYC" has no relevant results, no onebox results and no ads.
I don't think you can expect something good from EXPEDIA. I wonder if you know that EXPEDIA is listed in the top ripoff link at the bad business bureau ( https://www.ripoffreport.com) and has two "dedicated" websites due to poor customer support and lies: https://www.victimsofexpedia.com and https://www.shameonexpedia.com Kind regards
You could make a lot of affiliate income that way... but adwords is pretty good too!
Can anyone tell me please if this is a Onebox thing?
I'm not sure if other DC's display the same result, but if I google "accommodation johannesburg", the top result gets nine lines in the SERP's, with links to elsewhere in their domain, the other results only four.
Why should they be so privileged?
Ha!! This sounds like Google was simply riding on Expedia's back for a short while. This is not the case now. However would not surprise me that the two firms work together. Google is the search giant, Expedia is the travel giant. Makes sense for the two to work together but is this to a disadvantage to others in the travel market? What chance do smaller say St lucia villas travel markets stand againts such firms. Let's face it, it's all about turning up in search to be sucessful in the travel industry.
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Even though this is a very old post I just thought I'd shed some light on this. First off, we at Expedia do not pay for this placement. This is not related to our Adwords spend or any other relationship with Google. I can also assure you that we do not receive any "special treatment" from Google with regard to SEO or SEM. In actual fact I reached out to our paid search account manager just a few weeks ago regarding an SEO issue and received a very short response stating they could not comment on the issue and were unable to pass the details on to engineering.
We actually don't have any insight into why Google chose to make us the default, perhaps it's based purely on OLTA market share.
Additionally we have found that Google are currently testing an expanded implementation of this which now serves the onebox for "City Flights" related search queries with the option of choosing your origin airport (I assume based on IP/origin popularity) which then takes you the the usual origin and destination onebox.
Sorry I can't shed any more light on this, but as SEO Manager for Expedia.com I'm not complaining :)
HTH
Andrew
I am pretty sure that this is based on preffence from adwords spend or friendlieness of the expedia API to bring the data in for google... or both.
Expedia spends more in Adwords then any other travel player. That first link is likely backed by millions in Ad Spend.
Follow the money. Those are paid placements with custom deals. I'd be very interetested to see how those companies rank based on AdWords spend...
This brings up some really good points Rand. Perhaps the Adsense team has the relationship with Expedia where Expedia pays per click? Or it could be that the index team has actually tested all the sites and weighed them in preference of reliability and lowest prices? What would the other providers half to do to move up the list? Would they have to pay/bribe/steal, or simply ask nicely providing comparative results to the others?
Or maybe (kinda embarrassed it took me this long to realize) they are simply listed alphabetically?
That one has upset me since the day it came out. It’s obviously advertising, they must have some sort of deal with those online travel agencies but you can’t buy your way in. It’s some sort of exclusive deal.
Comparison engines like Kayak, Mobisimo, and Farecast are SOL and so are airlines like Southwest who don’t deal with the online travel agencies. (IMO) It sucks for the consumer.
The local scene here in india is hotting up with respect to online travel bookings, and clearly Expedia, Travelocity, Priceline, Orbitz & Hotwire are not the favorites here.
What if i am tryin to book tickets sitin in the US for my India travels... Not good:|
For london to paris, when i clicked on the main "flights from..." link, i got: https://www.google.com/%26date1%3D09%2F23%26da... (a 404)