Without fanfare, Google has debuted two fresh tricks in search results: promoted destination travel advice and conversational search.
The top attractions at a destination are automatically highlighted in a promotional bar when you search Google for "top things to do" at your destination.
You can also now speak queries and get answers relevant to where you are and information Google knows about you.
The first innovation poses a challenge to destination marketers, while the second tweak posts a challenge to anyone designing interactive interfaces for travelers asking questions on the go.
Google's own destination picks
Type "top things to do in Dublin" into Google's main search box on desktop browsers in the US and Europe and you'll see the following result:
A giant black carousel will pop up above the search results for "top things to do in Dublin."
The box spotlights horizontal thumbnail images of the main attractions for that destination, generated with an editorially influenced algorithm.
In Dublin's case, one of the first results to appear is "Dublin Castle," despite the castle not being the most-visited attraction in the city. Click on the image, and your search will be automatically re-run for "facts about Dublin Castle."
Pity the Dublin tourism organization, though. The website, Visit Dublin, ranks third in the search results, after Time Out's and TripAdvisor's listings for Dublin.
Given Google's landgrab for screen real estate, that third result doesn't appear on the screen when viewed on a 15inch MacBook Pro's screen via Chrome. That's bad news if users don't bother to scroll vertically and instead take advantage of Google's horizontal screen movement.
About 60 attractions are featured in the carousel, which can be scrolled by clicking. In our anecdotal search for various major cities in the US and Europe we were impressed by the quality of the attractions that Google chose to feature. On first glance, it doesn't appear possible to game the results.
A side observation: Google is becoming increasingly fond of horizontally scrolled information, a design detail pioneered via its Google Now and Field Trip apps in their Android versions.
Talking back to Google
In other news, today Google began "conversational search" for users of its Chrome desktop browser.
Click on the microphone icon in the search box to speak your query using voice search. The surprise is that Google will now respond by speaking the answer back to you, and you can seamlessly ask a follow-up question, and Google will respond with an answer instantly, too.
No more typing or pauses. This back-and-forth can go on in an infinite loop, if you have the energy.
It's even more powerful than it sounds. For a better description of "conversational search," here's the scoop from Danny Sullivan, founder of Search Engine Land:
Sometimes you can speak and get answers back from a single question that takes in more than what you explicitly said because Google knows where you’re at or you’ve given it access to some of your private information.
Weather is a good example. Here, I spoke, “Will it rain tomorrow?” and got back:
Google spoke to me, “No, rain is not expected tomorrow in Newport Beach. The forecast is 70 degrees and cloudy” and displayed the weather forecast. I hadn’t told it where I was, or that I wanted a weather forecast explicitly. But it knew my location, knew rain was related to weather and delivered up a great answer.
If you’ve enabled Google to access personal information through the Gmail Field Trial (a bad name since it now includes things beyond Gmail), speaking something like “what’s happening today” can bring back your agenda.
While still a novelty, the tool points the direction that Google is heading for how search queries are handled. By creating an industry benchmark, other company's products will be judged accordingly.
While not practical in most desktop settings, voice-based queries could be quite useful on mobile devices, which is presumably Google's next step for this technology.
Google Now already “surfaces” your personal information out of your calendars, apps, and records to tell you what you need during the day without you having to summon it. But a voice-based search could turn Google search on any platform into a true day-of-travel competitor for products like TripIt, GateGuru and the like.
Many user interfaces may have to be re-designed to accomodate a user expectation of true interactivity.
(To use the conversational search service, your Chrome browser must be up to date.
If the feature isn't working for you, go to the Chrome menu bar, select "Preferences" from the drop-down menu, and then choose "settings" from the options inside the browser windwo screen. You'll be prompted to see if your browser is automatically up to date or if you need to manually update it.
Alternatively, you can find settings by loading Google's homepage and looking for the word "settings" in the bottom right-hand corner of the homepage.)