Dennis Woodside of Google has some simple advice for travel marketers who will have to try to cope with the coming disruption -- "dog-fooding."
In his keynote address at TravelCom in Dallas, Woodside, Google's vice president of American operations, says travel companies will have to eat their own dog feed -- i.e. constantly test and tweak the solutions they've created -- as they meet head-on looming disruptions in search, video, mobile and cloud computing.
Search: Woodside says search will have to become richer, more social and global as consumers seek user-generated content and video about their travel experiences.
"The way you think of search has to evolve," Woodside says.
Video: Woodside says video will evolve into a more flexible advertising mode as half of all video will be addressable to certain consumers or segments instead of the current 30-second spot with a one-size fits all approach.
For example, the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority would be able to make inroads by advertising on the Web certain racy shows or attractions out in the desert in a more cost-effective way than is done today, he says.
Travel marketers would be able to reach much larger audiences with video at various price points than is the current norm today, Woodside says.
Mobile: In the long term, some 30% of online bookings will come from mobile devices, Woodside says.
In fact, he argues, "we think it [mobile] will become more important than the PC."
Even Google feels a threat from mobile, Woodside says, and it will have to adapt all of its services for mobile or become "less relevant."
Cloud computing: Most travel marketers will have to migrate their services to cloud computing, which will be another disruptive force, Woodside says.
So, hold onto your hats, break out your smartphone and pass the dog food.