Google leverages user info in travel guide app

Google knows a lot about me. It knows that I just got back from a quick trip to Maui. It knows what flights I took for a July Fourth weekend in Las Vegas. It even knows that I spent a month-long honeymoon in New Zealand and Australia this past spring that ended at a cozy Airbnb in Sydney's North Bondi Beach.

Since I'm a Gmail, Google search and Google Maps devotee, the company has extensive data on me and on countless others who use its products. Now the company is looking to leverage that information to serve as a personalized travel guide through its free app, Google Trips.

While Google has been growing its travel presence with trip-planning tools such as Google Flights, Google Destinations and a hotel-booking module, Google Trips provides an on-the-ground guide for travelers to use after they arrive. It offers attraction recommendations, multi-stop itineraries, food and drink suggestions and information on local transport, health resources and money.

Users can't book a hotel or buy a museum ticket using the app, but if their reservation for flights, hotels, dinner or even a concert have been sent to a Gmail inbox, that information is pulled in and displayed in a neat little list. Hence, the weeks-old app knowing all about my visit to New Zealand months ago.

In San Francisco, Google Trips pointed me toward "top spots" such as the Golden Gate Bridge and Exploratorium, offering ratings, hours and basic information pulled from Google searches, plus directions via Google Maps as well as nearby attractions like the mural-filled Balmy Alley and local favorites such as the Seward Mini Park, where visitors can zip down a pair of concrete slides.

You can build your own "day plan" itinerary by pinning various attractions scattered across a city map and letting a Google algorithm cook up the best route. Once you've created a specific trip in the app, you can also download the guide, so your Chinatown walking tour and flight reservations are available even when you're offline.

Google isn't the only company playing in the travel guide app space. Lonely Planet's app, simply dubbed Guides, offers expert advice on 50 cities around the world. TripIt organizes your existing reservations into a master itinerary.

"So far, we have not really seen anyone who is knocking it out of the park using data and serving up personalized, relevant and timely offers," said Phocuswright senior research analyst Maggie Rauch.

But Henry Harteveldt, travel industry analyst and founder of Atmosphere Research Group, thinks Google Trips could do just that.

"The big story here is this is from Google," Harteveldt said. "Google has a lot of assets and a lot of content. Google understands so much about you that the potential exists for Google Trips to recommend restaurants and activities that match your behavior."

Rauch points to the breadth of Google's data.

"Via Gmail, they might have insight into a traveler's bookings via multiple travel providers," she said. "Then, they have a ton of other data on many people: non-travel purchases, how a traveler moves about a given city."

Harteveldt said, "If you're doing a search through Google, or if you have discussed something through a Gmail account or any other type of a Google asset, Google has a legal right to track that and to say, 'Let's use this to show we understand who that user is.'"

That understanding shows up in the app's "For You" section, where an algorithm examines your web and map search histories to guess what attractions you might want to visit.

It has the potential to steer travelers toward a tailored set of sights and activities. However, with all that data, Harteveldt said, Google Trips will have to navigate a fine line between cool and creepy: Dig too deep into users' email accounts or search histories, and Google risks scaring off travelers who feel they're being stalked.

The company's assets also mark a point of differentiation. Rauch points to integration with Google Maps as a prime advantage over travel guide competitors.

"Maps are one of the most-used mobile features among travelers," she said.

Harteveldt said he sees the opportunity for Google to embed other internal assets into the app, including navigation from Waze or restaurant reviews from Zagat. 

"This is the proverbial Day One," he said. "Google Trips today certainly is a product that offers enormous potential and the promise of enormous utility."

As it develops, the app might also present challenges and opportunities to travel agents. While bookings and even search for bookable travel are not currently available through Google Trips, Harteveldt said the app could potentially deliver some of the information that a travel agent traditionally provides. He also sees the app as a useful planning tool for agents, who could use the app to research clients' upcoming trips and design on-the-ground itineraries. 

"Every cook, every baker has their recipe and the secret ingredient that gives the dish that special something," Harteveldt said. "Google Trips has the ability to be that special something for a travel agent. Google thinks they have built that proverbial better mousetrap. No travel agent can afford to dismiss anything that Google does."