The following is a post from Kevin Olivieri, TIG Global Social Media Analyst.

2010 sure seems to be shaping up as a big year for location based services. Recently, Facebook officially announced their foray into the geo-social realm with their newest feature aptly named, Facebook Places.

The goal of Facebook Places is to do the following three things:

1. Help share where you are with friends
2. See which friends are nearby
3. Discover new and interesting places nearby

Facebook’s overall vision is to have their Places feature provide users with the ability to share stories and comments pinged to a physical location, while also connecting nearby users for serendipitous meetups.

Like other location based services, users “check-in” to physical locations using their phones Facebook app or touch site (sorry it’s only available on smartphones). If the location is not in the system, users have the power to add it to Facebook Places for others users to check into.

One of the ways Facebook is differentiating themselves from other location based services is through their ability to enable users to tag friends when they check in. Considering not all users will have smartphones, it’s a good way for users to involve their friends. Furthermore, Facebook mentioned that they will be tailoring users location results to their interests, one of the many benefits for having data on the interests and “likes” of users.

The main differentiating factor between Facebook Places and other location based services is its potential user base. Foursquare and MyTown have about 3 million users each, while Facebook has over 500M. Granted, Facebook Places is only currently available to US residents with smartphones (they plan to expand as the year goes on), but the fact that the company has entered this realm will really begin to push location based services to the mainstream. Users will be checking into locations around the US, and inevitably, someone will check into your business. But will you be ready?

If your business already has a Facebook page, you have the option of claiming your Places page. This means if you’re already monitoring your business page, you can seamlessly integrate the Places page with your page so when users check in, and they’ll see your business page. Claiming your business is not a difficult process and can be done now.  I recommend it to avoid confusion down the road as this feature becomes more and more utilized by Facebook’s user base.

Facebook Places could be good or bad for you, depending upon how well you monitor the site. If you didn’t have a Facebook Page for your business before, chances are you will by year’s end, and it will happen whether you like it or not. Users will have the ability to write comments about your business and share their experiences (good or bad) with their friends and all to see. If you are not monitoring or staying up to date with your business on Facebook, you run the risk of missing out on countless opportunities.

Facebook Places will be another chance to connect and engage with your customers on a personal level to build relationships and trust. Simply thanking them for their business or offering specials for checking-in could be the difference between one-time shoppers and return business. The business that learns how to incentive check-ins, is the business that will be better off.

I don’t expect Facebook Places to spur an immediate explosion in location based services usage, but I do feel it will push the idea to the mainstream by next year and eventually make checking in a part of daily mobile Facebook usage for all. I believe the key to really set the ball in motion is getting small businesses involved with this location-based service – something Facebook and its 500M+ users can more readily be persuaded to do, rather than a Foursquare, MyTown, or Gowalla.

Do you think users will embrace Facebook Places and location sharing? Or will privacy issues be too much for everyone? When will businesses begin to start paying attention to location based services and incentivize customers? Sound off in the comments section!

Interested in geolocation and putting your business on the map? TIG Global offers a full suite of interactive marketing tools to get your brand or location noticed. Click here to learn more, send us an email, or give us a call at 301-841-4700.

Kurt Bradshaw, TIG Global Vice President of Web Marketing, answers a recent question posed by Jen in London, England. Click on the video screen below to view her response.

Do you have any research on online consumer buying behavior?

Interested in seeing more of TIG Global’s Ask the Expert Video Series?  Click here to view the entire gallery, vote for your favorite answers, or post your own questions for our resident online marketing gurus.

The following is a post from Kristen Poillon, TIG Global Marketing Manager.

For months now, we have been touting the benefits of sites to the like of Foursquare, the popular social gaming site that encourages its players to take their social lives from the web page to hit the streets in search of real life social activities and coveted badges of honor bestowed upon the most active users.  In light of the popularity of such sites, we are naturally seeing more players appear in the game.

Enter Hunch.  Mashable recently posted a write up on this emerging social hub, as described here by contributing author, Laura Indvik:

“Hunch, a collective intelligence app that delivers personalized — and, as many users have found, highly accurate — recommendations based on individual responses to a set of taste-determining questions, has launched an alpha version of its new Local Search feature.

Users can visit Hunch.com/local to get suggestions on everything from restaurants and grocery stores to spas and museums in their area.

Because Hunch’s accuracy increases in proportion to the amount of data it has collected from users, the feature currently functions best in urban areas, Co-Founder Chris Dixon explained. I was initially impressed to see that the app lists a good number of my favorite restaurants and wine bars near Mashable’s New York headquarters on the first results page, along with several that look like promising matches for future exploration. At the bottom is a slider I can use to filter between suggestions that are uniquely suited to me versus ones that are generally popular.

Although the web app is useful, it’s primary function is to showcase what Hunch’s technology can do. “The best way to leverage our technology is by partnering with other sites,” Dixon said. He hinted that several major partnerships would be announced in the next couple of weeks. Also, a new version of Hunch’s self-service API will be rolling out soon so any developer can take advantage of its algorithms.

Dixon believes Local Search in particular could be used to improve location-based services such as Yelp and Foursquare. He noted that one of the recurring problems of Yelp’s star-rating system is that it doesn’t always accurately predict whether or not a visitor will like a given venue because not every user is going to like the same things. Yelp’s service could benefit from including Hunch’s personalized ratings alongside the general ones the site currently offers, Dixon thinks.”

As you can see this site holds a lot of potential to perform well on its own in terms of local search benefits, but it also holds great promise in terms of engraining itself into the social sites that have become such established and important resources for generating revenue in the hospitality industry, i.e. Yelp and Foursquare. The rating features are of particular interest, as this would provide incredible flexibility for users in voicing their opinions, and would allow for a more granular look at the likes and dislikes of outspoken consumers.  And this type of outlet provides a sounding board that will ultimately allow for a more focused strategy, resulting in a more tailored and enjoyable experience for the consumer. 

While Hunch is still up-and-coming, it is something to watch and just another consideration when planning a comprehensive social media strategy for your hotel, destination, or restaurant.

Interested in ramping up your social media strategy? TIG Global offers a full suite of interactive tools to get your location noticed. Click here to learn more, send us an email, or give us a call at 301-841-4700.

We are pleased to bring you the next paper in our exclusive series of Internet Marketing Special Reports. It is our goal, along with HSMAI, to reveal the latest web marketing best practices and help increase your revenues and results. 

Learn how to best design, layout, and utilize your hospitality or travel website to maximize results. Examine a variety of proven best practices including:

• Using color to make emotional connections & create order
• Planning site navigation to funnel visitors to conversion
• Creating multiple photo galleries to increase bookings
• Selecting mapping tools & widgets that visitors want to use

The following is a post from Kristen Poillon, TIG Global Marketing Manager.

As many of you have probably already heard, Microsoft announced earlier this week that it will be beefing up its search offering through a merger with major search player Yahoo! to complete the ‘Microsoft Search Alliance.’ This long speculated move is stirring up the industry and leaving businesses to comprehend what this change will mean for their valued search engine real estate.

Rumblings of this merger are long standing and are well documented on the web, but now that the ink has officially dried, the time has come to learn what this means for your business and the strategy needed to proceed successfully and build your site rankings within this powerful new engine, one that promises to give Google a good run for its money.

So what are the changes?  According to Microsoft, here is the basic rundown:

• Bing will begin powering organic search results on Yahoo! Search for the English language in the United States and Canada.
• After this organic transition is complete, Bing will power 5.2 billion monthly searches, which is 31.6 percent of the search market share in the United States and 8.6 percent share in Canada.
• If you currently advertise on Yahoo! Search, you will soon have the option to use a transition tool in Yahoo! Search Marketing that will walk you through the steps to transition your Yahoo! Search campaigns into Microsoft Advertising adCenter. This transition tool is currently in testing with a select group of advertisers, but is in development to become available to all Yahoo! Search Marketing advertisers in the coming weeks, giving you the ability to advertise on Yahoo! Search and Bing with one adCenter ad buy.
• The primary goal is to provide you with a quality transition experience in 2010, while protecting the holiday season. However, if Microsoft concludes that it would improve the overall experience, they may choose to defer the transition to 2011.

These changes will undoubtedly call for adjustments in SEO strategy and PPC campaigns in order to troubleshoot any possible issues with a slew of online marketing efforts, such as the crawling and indexing of your site, geo-targeting, differences in ad copy styles, and keyword exclusions, to name a few during the initial transition phase.  This may sound overwhelming, but don’t fret!  TIG Global is ramping up its game plan for clients to ensure a smooth transition to the new setup.  In the meantime, here is a recent overview from searchenginewatch.com covering some of the anticipated changes.  More to follow from our SEO gurus as strategy progresses!

What are your thoughts on the new Microsoft Search Alliance?  Good, Bad, Indifferent?  Sound off in the comments section and let us know your thoughts.

Interested in ramping up your SEO strategy, or need assistance in adjusting to the constant change in the online environment?  Click here to learn more, send us an email, or give us a call at 301-841-4700.

Smartphones are on the rise again…is your digital marketing strategy equipped to respond?
The following is a post from Kristen Poillon, TIG Global Marketing Manager.

It’s no surprise that cell phones have become a standard, and a staple, for the majority of consumers out there today. Stop where you are at any given moment and look around; you are bound to see someone in proximity to you chatting away while on-the-go, or weaving haphazardly down the sidewalk in an attempt to walk and text all at the same time (I don’t suggest this, by the way). And as times progress and consumers rely more heavily on being connected, standard cell phones are proving to be a gateway to the ultimate mobile device – the smartphone.

We have all seen the commercials that give way to the ferocious rivalry of mobile phone providers in a rush to beat their competitor to the punch with the new “it” phone, almost to the point of brand cannibalism. Take your pick from the iPhone, the Droid, Blackberry, Backflip, Torch (the list is endless), all in a race to be the next bigger and better thing. From a personal standpoint, I have a range of friends and family members that speak of their smartphones as proud parents would of their children at a little league game, boasting to one another with claims of how much better each person’s phone is than another’s in terms of speed, apps, graphics and sleek appearance, just to name a few. I suppose when they start to name their phones, I will begin to worry. So, all that aside, what does this mean for your businesses?

Pause and rewind. All of the latter leads to evidence that smartphones have become an indispensible extension of ourselves at this juncture. People have a need for instant access to information, for both necessity and convenience sake. With that in mind, enter the rise of the smartphone. As recent statistics from eMarketer indicate, smartphones have been gaining popularity for years, but they look to see the popularity and reliance grow even greater in the approaching years. So just how great is the growth expected to be?

According to Nielsen, smartphones were used by 25% of the US mobile phone audience in Q2 2010, up from 23% the previous quarter and 16% in Q2 2009. The research firm predicts they will overtake feature phones by the end of 2011.

And it makes sense that as the pace of life quickens and the expectation for people to be wired and in touch at any given moment continues to generate a greater need for access to information. These factors combined likely give way to a whole lot more people out there using their phones to search, research, communicate and purchase while on-the-go.

In fact, as eMarketer predicts in their latest study, the anticipated increase in ownership of smart devices is driving growth in mobile internet usage at a rapid rate. The acceleration of this trend has led the statistics powerhouse to raise its forecast relative to their estimates, released in November 2009. According to eMarketer projections, 85.5 million mobile users will access the web from their mobile devices in 2010, versus 83.5 million in the previous forecast.

Additionally, in 2013, penetration will reach the halfway mark, and by 2014, 142.1 million users, representing 53.9% of the US mobile user population, will access the internet using mobile browsers or applications.

In April 2010, comScore found a total of 72.8 million mobile internet users, representing an average for the three-month period prior to reporting. This falls in line with eMarketer’s estimates, which are for December of each year: comScore’s figure is an improvement over eMarketer’s 2009 estimate of 68.6 million users and well on the way to the 85.5 million predicted by the end of the year.

The stats are impressive, and as these devices slowly become the norm, the time to up the ante on your mobile marketing strategy is now, in order to reap the full rewards of this trend. To get started, make sure that you have developed a mobile version of your website that mimics the look, feel and branding of your current website, but with the addition of mobile friendly navigation and information that is easy to find for users in transit.

You may also consider building a social media following through the mobile revolution using tools such a Foursquare, an online social gaming site that encourages users to get out and explore local businesses in person, and offers check-in capabilities that result in unique rewards. You might also build an app that places your business or destination only a screen tap away from online mobile accessibility. Hotels have also jumped in the game by providing guests with tools that maximize convenience and ease of use. For example…getting in to your hotel from a late flight and want to arrive at your hotel, already checked-in with dinner waiting in your room? Special mobile tools, such as TIG Global and MICROS’s myStayManager, make this dream a reality, allowing guests to check-in, order room service, unlock their room door, arrange for dining reservations and more, directly from their phones. The possibilities are endless, and as these devices grow in popularity, look to see the offerings become all of the more impressive.

Are you using a smartphone application for your business, or have you had an experience with an application that you would like to share? Sound off in the comments section!

Interested in ramping up your mobile strategy. TIG Global has a full suite of interactive marketing tools to get your customers on the go wired to your business. Click here to learn more, send us an email, or give us a call at 301-841-4700.

The following is a post from Brian Bagel, TIG Global Manager of Social Media.

In many ways, email marketing was the very first form of online social media engagement. It allowed marketers to reach out directly to consumers in the same place that they conducted daily personal communication. Even as social media has evolved, email marketing has endured as one of the most effective and trusted tactics to get your message into the hands of an engaged audience.  

We all know how much an expansive email list and a large social fan base are coveted. But email marketing and social media marketing are beginning to build a symbiotic relationship, each allowing the other to become more powerful. Let’s go through a few tactics that can help to improve your social and email strategies.

Just as you strive to make your social media messages go viral by utilizing the network effect, you should also have the same goal for your email campaigns. Including some kind of sharing functionality within your email blasts, where recipients can share the message via Facebook, Twitter or any other social network, is proven to increase the effectiveness of the email campaign. The email marketing provider GetResponse recently released a study (signup required) showing that including a social sharing option in email messages increases click-through-rates (CTR) by 30% over emails without sharing options. More than that, emails with three or more sharing options generated an astounding 55% higher CTR.

The merging of social and email is not isolated only to the inclusion of sharing functionality, however. Email marketing provider MailChimp recently announced that they will also have the option to include the Facebook Like button in their email blasts. And with over 65 million Facebook users “liking” content every day, it is inevitable that more email marketing providers will ‘crack the code’ and place these buttons in their emails. Those “likes” are increased exposure for your emails, and yes, that leads to more sharing.

Finally, look to treat the people that have liked your Facebook page as a separate email list. In the admin section of your Facebook page, there is an option to send a targeted updates to your Facebook page, and have that update go straight to your likers’ Facebook inbox. Treat this like you would treat any email list, and be careful with how many messages you send out. You want the messages to have an impact, not have them ignored or create a nuisance to your loyal followers. And while this tactic may not generate the same results as a full email campaign, every extra eyeball you get on your message is another chance for a conversion.

So what are the key takeaways? First, is to be sure to include sharing functionality in your email blasts. It’s simple, relatively cheap, and leads to a much higher CTR for your campaign. Second, look for email marketing providers to begin including the Facebook like button in their suite of products, and when they do, be sure to inquire about how you can best implement them. And third, utilize your Facebook page following as an email list to send them direct updates and keep them in the loop.

Overall, social outreach seems to be making its way into just about every other kind of marketing out there and rightfully so.  It is only natural that people utilizing social networks will want to share what they see and have an interest in with their friends, and this, in turn, makes your marketing messages more effective.

Do you use sharing buttons in your email marketing? Have you ever shared a marketing email blast with a friend? Sound off in the comments section.

Looking to ramp up your social strategy and boost returns on your email campaigns? TIG Global offers a full suite of interactive marketing tools to get your brand or destination noticed. Click here to learn more, send us an email, or give us a call at 301-841-4700.

The following is a post from Brian Fitzgerald, TIG Global Director of Search and Social.

The art and tradition of storytelling is perhaps as old as human existence. Everyone, everywhere, in every culture around the globe can appreciate a good story. I’ve been involved with the travel and hotel industries for almost 10 years and there may not be any industries where storytelling is more engrained in the culture or where stories do such an important role in creating and describing the culture and nature of the business. From the fantastic customer experience that gets retold to others, to the epic story about the hotel employee going above and beyond to exceed customers’ expectations, to retelling the crazy story from when you responded to the call up to room 216 at 3:30 in the morning to…well…you can fill in the blanks. These are all stories that fascinate us, make us laugh or can evoke a range of emotions.

So, how can this benefit my business?
At this point you’re asking, “This is an Internet marketing blog, who cares about the stories I have to tell?” Well, I want to talk about how these types of stories can take your Internet presence and search engine optimization to an entirely new level. As you hopefully know, the quality of third party sites that link to your site, otherwise known as reciprocal linking, is extremely important for search engine optimization. These third party links demonstrate to search engines that you are indeed important and authoritative by displaying relevant and interesting content.  Think of these inbound links as “votes” for your site. The difficult part of this search engine optimization equation is getting website owners to link to you, but the easier part is giving them a reason to link to you.

This is where storytelling comes into play, otherwise known as “storyselling” for business purposes (more to come on this topic). Your stories have a great chance of resonating with people, and evoking those emotions that lead to them wanting to share your story on their website, share it on Facebook, retweet it on Twitter, or share it through the hundreds of other channels that exist on the web. All of this sharing has the potential to lead to increased interest and buzz around your story, around you and around your business. Additionally, this level of buzz and interest can, and often does, lead to inbound links from bloggers, journalists, friends and family, and more as your story snowballs and gets passed along from person to person. These inbound links are the key element in vaulting your search engine optimization to new levels.

Getting Started
So, with all that said, if you can start taking those anecdotal stories that you share and tell everyday and turn them into online content, then that is the first step to building a base to feed to different online distribution channels. For instance, if you have a blog then you could write up your stories as blog posts. If you are not much of a writer then you could record them as audio podcasts or record them as a video clips. Once this type of asset is created on your website or on your blog you can start to promote it through RSS feeds, email blasts, social media communications, emails to constituents and more. This gets the buzz started and starts building interest and attention that, if your story is a good one, will result in inbound links and a boost to your search engine optimization results.

Interested in ramping up your online presence?  TIG Global offers a full suite of interactive marketing tools to get your brand or destination noticed.  Click here to learn more, send us an email, or give us a call at 301-841-4700.

The following is a post from Kevin Olivieri, TIG Global Social Media Analyst.

Every day it seems to me new reports are emerging regarding the rapid growth and adoption of US social networks across the world. Facebook’s game changer, social plug-ins, has put the site in a position to overtake Google as the most visited and utilized website on the internet down the road. Twitter’s simplistic design and ease of communicating messages has enabled the micro-blogging site to continuously grow, establishing itself as a premier player of the social networking field. As both US companies Facebook and Twitter approach 500M and 200M users respectively, here’s something interesting to note:

70% of Facebook users are from countries outside the US, while over 60% of Twitter accounts are international. Furthermore, globally, 22% of time on the internet is on social media sites, where the average internet user is on them 66% more than last year, a number expected to grow considerably (Nielsen).

Perhaps one has to look no further than the World Cup to see social networking’s international popularity in action. Users from around the globe are taking to Facebook and Twitter to broadcast messages of all types: anything from cheering for their teams, checking/relaying game scores, or even venting about those damned vuvuzelas.

With figures and observations like these, it may be intriguing to consider pushing your social media marketing campaigns internationally, with the hopes of attracting more customers to your property. But before you go out and try to connect and engage with new international users, you must understand where to find them. If you are looking to expand your social media marketing initiatives abroad, here are some key facts to consider when deciding where to go.

In some parts of the world already (the UK), social networks have actually overtaken search engines in web traffic. In other regions of our globe, social networks have achieved a greater reach than even newspapers. In this case, the MENA regions (Middle East/North Africa) Facebook users outnumber the newspaper sales (15M vs. 14M). Long standing local social networks are quickly losing ground or being usurped by their American counterparts, too. Japan’s Mixi, which in 2008 had 80% market share and 10M users, was just recently passed by surging Twitter in visits per month.

The map below displays the most popular social networks for each country. As you can see, Facebook is the worldwide leader, with 111 of 131 countries preferring the site over others. Even with Facebook’s utter worldwide social network dominance, Twitter too, is boasting impressive growth internationally in key markets throughout Asia, Europe, and Latin America to edge up into the top 2 or 3 social networks for each country. Traffic from countries like Brazil, Russia, India, Italy, and South Korea have increased significantly over the last few months.

(from http://www.vincos.it/world-map-of-social-networks/ )

But to me, the most interesting takeaway of this map and recent studies is the fact that the BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India, and China) are dominated by social networks not named Facebook or Twitter. In Brazil, residents were quick to adopt Google’s Orkut and spur rapid growth in the region (a region that Facebook has since taken over). Russia’s most popular social network is a site designed eerily similarly to Facebook called V Kontakte. China’s QQ, originally an instant messaging service that has over time integrated social features, reigns supreme in a country that has banned Facebook and Twitter. India, like Brazil, originally signed into Orkut en masse. However, very recently it has been reported that Facebook is neck and neck with Orkut as India’s top social network choice.

The reason these countries are important to focus on is the fact that these emerging market economies are primed to continue sustained impressive growth over the next few decades, resulting in an explosion in the number of middle class citizens. These new middle class citizens with their increasing disposable income and consumption will be a focal point to the growth of the global economy and allow them to spend on, let’ say, traveling, making them intriguing potential customers for your property.

It also helps that the BRIC countries account for almost 3B people, and as high speed internet becomes more readily available throughout these countries, I believe it’s safe to say social networking signups will increase.

Facebook has made their global expansion plans to Russia and the Far East known (in hopes to reach 1B users by 2012), as these regions account for very little of Facebook’s international audience. Twitter has made their own push in the Russian and Far East region by getting Russian President Dmitry Medvedev signed up and tweeting and establishing an impressive position in Japan. It should be interesting to see the next few months shape up, especially considering how fast things change in social media.

Do you think Facebook could become the primary social network in the BRIC countries? Why or Why not? What order do you think the BRIC’s would fall into Facebook or Twitter? Sound off in the comments section and let us know what you think about the future global social network environment.

Looking to ramp up your social media strategy?  TIG Global offers a full suite of interactive marketing tools to get your brand or destination noticed in the social space.  Click here to learn more, send us an email, or give us a call at 301-841-4700.

The following is a post from Paige Brandt, TIG Global Marketing.

Big news is barraging the travel industry, following a series of swift mergers and newsworthy partnerships, as Google and Facebook race to compete in the travel sector. The recent announcement of Facebook’s acquisition of the travel recommendation giant, NextStop, falls right on the heels of Google’s recent announcement that it would be pairing up with travel software giant, ITA.  So what does this mean for the future of travel search and bookings?  Here are some of the details on Google’s recent developments, with more to come on the Facebook merger, as it develops.

About the Google-ITA deal
This month, Google announced the acquisition of software company ITA for $700 million, in a deal that merges the leading Internet search engine with the leading provider of flight information.  ITA uses QPX software to organize flight times, availability and prices.  Currently, ITA provides airline data to key companies in the travel industry like Orbitz, Bing and Kayak.  Google has made it clear it does not wish to sell airline tickets at this time, but would like to use the technology to create an easier way to search for flights on site.

So, then…what’s in it for Google?
This acquisition is a strategic step for Google.  While Google currently provides information about websites, it has no filter for precise travel information.  A Google search for cheap airfare in one destination will turn up millions of results in milliseconds, but no traveler wants to spend their time weeding out actual deals from the millions of results.  With the capabilities of ITA’s software, Google will be able to generate results that that precisely align with travelers needs. 

Google’s decision to buy ITA makes sense with the global growth of online travel, and has been speculated by industry vets to be an inevitable move for the search giant.  The current forecast from Forrester predicts that online leisure and unmanaged business travel spending will increase from $80 billion per year in 2010 to $111 billion per year by the end of 2014.  It is no secret that the online travel industry is rapidly growing, so it is a rational time for Google to decide to get in the game. 

Worries for the rest of the travel industry
It is not surprising that travel industry executives would be unnerved by the deal.  Key industry players fear that Google will form a monopoly, eventually dominating the industry.  With ITA software, Google will be able to develop a system that ITA competitors (who only license the software) are unable to produce.  Additionally, Google will likely become the leading online advertising buy for travel-related marketers, as it transforms into a pivotal one-stop travel resource. 

Industry-wide benefits from the deal
While many are worried about what the Google-ITA deal will mean for the travel industry, there may be some silver lining in the cloud.  For one, it may help to raise the standards for online travel resources.  Google is an Internet powerhouse and widely user-friendly, so this move may incentivize the industry to tighten up their efforts and focus on maximizing the user’s experience to compete with the Internet giant. This could possibly equate to more standardized search functionality for the industry, depending on your views.

Affect on the hotel industry
How will this acquisition affect the hotel industry?  While ITA software currently works with retrieving data from the airlines and providing that information to online travelers, the hotel industry should prepare for changes as well.  Tnooz.com reports that ITA software has been looking at hotel search for some time now.  According to this source, ITA already has staff dedicated to hotel search with goals in mind for 2010.  Google already has search and pricing information for hotels using Google Maps, so advanced technology would give Google even more dominance in the industry and cause a major shake up for online travel resources. 

What do you think about this recent merger?  Good, bad, indifferent?  Sound off in the comments section and let us know your thoughts!

Interested in ramping up your online search strategy?  TIG Global offers a suite of interactive marketing tools to get your brand or destination noticed.  Click here to learn more, send us an email, or give us a call at 301-841-4700.