Google Launches 'Google Trips' Personalized Travel Planner (techcrunch.com)

Google has an app for just about everything. Their latest application, called Google Trips, aims to help you better plan your vacations and other travels. TechCrunch reports: Called Google Trips, the iOS and Android app pulls in a combination of data from Google Maps and crowdsourced contributions from other travels, in order to offer a personalized travel guide that helps you keep track of your day trips, reservations, points of interest, tourist attractions, restaurants and more. The home screen includes a search box with a prompt "where do you want to go?" for planning new trips, and other cards let you keep track of your current and upcoming vacations and plans. What's helpful is that each city you plan to visit during one of your trips can each have its own tab within the larger "Trip" section, and with a simple toggle switch, you can download all the information about that destination for offline access. Meanwhile, on each city's screen, a variety of colorful cards help you jump into various sections like "Saved places," "Day Plans," "Food and Drink," "Getting around," "Things to do," "Reservations," and more. Google says Trips can show you the most popular day plans and itineraries for the top 200 cities worldwide. This information is actually based on historic visit data from other travelers, which Google has then assembled into lists that include the most popular sights and attractions. In addition to sightseeing, the app can also track flight, hotel, car and restaurant reservations, which makes the app something of a competitor to Concur's TripIt, and, to some extend, the new territory Airbnb is carving out with its own forthcoming Airbnb Trips app, which will focus on travel services. However, what makes Google Trips compelling is that it leverages Google's ability to tap into the data you have stored in your Gmail, as it automatically gathers your reservations from your email and organizes them into trips on your behalf. Google Trips is live now on Android and iOS.

Comments

tripit already did it ;-)

[gavron]

I look forward to seeing Google's product in play -- they've done such an awesome job with most others (notable exceptions being Google+ and Hangouts).

I use tripit.com. It can accept forwarded email confirmations, sieve out important data, put it all together, and present it online or on the Android app to make everything convenient.

It tells me the arrival gate at the airport, the next gate for the connecting flight, and I get flight delays from it quicker than through the airline (SWA, DL, UA) own text messaging system.

I hope google is successful... they have a high bar to climb to beat tripit.com.

OB DISC: after using it for one week I bought the "pro" version to get even more info. I love it.
OB DISC2: I travel business/pleasure about 4 times a year...

Ehud Gavron
Tucson AZ US

Re:tripit already did it ;-)

[temcat]

Does it work with non-English source documents while presenting the output in English?

If only you could tell Google '..via..'

[RealGene]

I want to tell Maps 'from Hartford CT to Baltimore MD via the Tappan Zee Bridge'.
Dragging the blue line is a pain, and usually ends up with a corkscrew at some point.

Re:If only you could tell Google '..via..'

[eriks]

Google maps has had multi-destination directions for years. I use it all the time:

https://www.google.com/maps/di...

If slashcode mangles the link, there's a + in a circle where you can add a destination.

Re:If only you could tell Google '..via..'

[CohibaVancouver]

Sure it is:

http://tinyurl.com/jmzqcph

Re:If only you could tell Google '..via..'

[eriks]

Did you look at the link, or try it on google maps? It's precisely applicable, as the map I posted does exactly what the OP asked for: Hartford to Baltimore via the Tappan Zee, without the need to drag the route line.

Re:If only you could tell Google '..via..'

[Coren22]

But, the real question is, why would you want to come down here to Baltimore, it is so much nicer up there in CT. :)

Personally, I use the GW on that path, but the Tappan Zee works as well. I have family up in Springfield, so have driven that path often enough to almost get it without Maps on the Cell, but I always get confused in New York, and it always seems that the GPS drops out right there too.

Fun times.

No desktop

[manu0601]

It is only available as smartphone app; Google considers it makes no sense to prepare a trip on a desktop?

Re:No desktop

[manu0601]

Bro, this is 2016, no one uses a desktop!

At least, I suspect the app developer does!

yeah

[Anonymous Coward]

another service to track me... i'll install it right now... noooooooooooooooooooot

Crowdsourced trips?

[rsilvergun]

I feel a great Disturbance in the Force. As though millions of travelers cried out and were suddenly trolled.

In the meantime Tucson, Az is a fabulous place. Don't believe that Hamlet guy.

History of Google products

[dysmal]

If history tells us anything, they'll shutter this in 30 months and around 6 months from now they'll shoehorn G+ or Youtube onto this product. Yet again snatching defeat from the jaws of victory!

Sucks so far

[SuperKendall]

Download iOS app.

Asks for Google login - skip.

Search for a city I'm planning to see, ask to create a trip. Oops, that requires a Google login of course...

Sigh. Ok, here Googe is my login so you may track me even further.

Go to create trip - "Failed to create trip. Try again later".

Heck of a job, Google.

P.S. In the aftermath of no trip, tried other aspects of creating a plan for a city - Things to Do is empty, Food & Drink come up with nothing. So basically total server blowout.

Why not fix maps first?

[Anonymous Coward]

It's not 1970. You don't put arbitrary limits into your software in 2016. I want to plan a route with more than 10 stops. I want to save it for later. And I'd like to put in how long I plan to bet at each stop so I can actually be in control of my travel.

I don't care about suggestions as to where I could go. I figured that out already. We have this awesome technology called "files" and "directories" that lets me save all of my stuff for my reservations. I don't need your help with that, either.

Google, is it so hard to replicate the functionality of a piece of software made in 1988? It's even discontinued now, maybe you can buy it from Microsoft and figure out how they made arrays with more than one digit.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Streets_%26_Trips#History

Re:Why not fix maps first?

[Coren22]

It might even be old enough to run on an underpowered phone without much in the way of changes. It used to run on 256 MB of ram on XP after all, that is way less resources than even the crappiest phone around now.

Targetted ads.

[grub]

"Your trip to Saudi Arabia is next Monday. Would you like to see burkas from our valued advertising partners?"

Re: Nice and useful

[Camembert]

Quite simply, the tool finds details of my past trips as well in my emails and I could use that to trigger the download of info about a previous destination.

great. for my first 'personalization'....

[karlandtanya]

I would like to set default "avoid tolls"

Re: Nice and useful

[Anonymous Coward]

What is the matter with everyone here? An app that goes through your emails and gives an advertising company complete details of your trips is a GOOD THING? Not only is it creepy as hell, it's one of the worst forms of privacy invasions I can think of. Can you all not actually think for yourselves and manage your own lives? People have been doing it for thousands of years.

I never want personalized anything from any app or any company, especially Google. The cost is way too great.

Re: Nice and useful

[Camembert]

Actually I use gmail privately, so in any case my mails are already there.