Travel Blog
The latest news and notes from the Travel team
Google+ Stories and Movies: memories made easier
Tuesday, May 20, 2014
(Cross-posted on the
Google Official Blog
)
A suitcase full of dirty clothes. A sad-looking house plant. And 437 photos and videos on your phone, tablet and camera. This is the typically messy scene after a vacation. And although we can’t do your laundry (thanks but no thanks), or run your errands (well, maybe
a few
), we’d still like to help. Enter Google+ Stories, which can automatically weave your photos, videos and the places you visited into a beautiful travelogue.
No more sifting through photos for your best shots, racking your brain for the sights you saw, or letting your videos collect virtual dust. We’ll just gift you a story after you get home. This way you can relive your favorite moments, share them with others, and remember why you traveled in the first place.
Stories will be available this week on Android and the web, with iOS coming soon. In the meantime you can browse my story below (click to start), or explore a few others by paraglider
Tom de Dorlodot
, and DJ
Steve Aoki
.
When it’s less about travel, and more about today's events (like a birthday party, or baby’s first steps),
Google+ Movies
can produce a highlight reel of your photos and videos automatically—including effects, transitions and a soundtrack. Today we’re bringing Movies to Android, iOS and the web, so lots more people will receive these video vignettes.
A movie of my daughter’s first bike ride, created automatically by Google+
To get started with Stories and Movies, simply
back up
your photos and videos to Google+. And that’s it.
Auto Awesome
will get to work in the background, and you’ll get notified when a story or movie is ready.
In fact: if your photo library is already online, you may already have stories waiting for you. So look for the new app in
Google Play
, view the full list of improvements
on Google+
, and enjoy your walks down memory lane.
Posted by
+Anil Sabharwal
, Director of Product Management
S7 Airlines launches QPX to allow improved flight shopping across channels
Wednesday, May 14, 2014
S7 Airlines, one of Russia’s largest airlines and a
one
world alliance member, recently launched our
QPX™
pricing and shopping technology. S7 now offers their customers a more accurate and efficient way of shopping for flights across multiple channels -- on
www.s7.ru
, within the call center and with their
Android™
app.
This is part of a larger effort in which S7 deployed a new booking platform with a modern design. As part of this first release, S7 used QPX pricing and shopping technology to allow their customers to shop for flights across the S7 network and their partner networks.
Dmitriy Chuyko, S7 Airlines E-commerce Director said, “Using QPX pricing and shopping technology gives our customers a more accurate, robust and efficient way to shop for flights. The initial launch was really smooth and we’re looking forward to releasing some of the new features we’re working on, like reward shopping and the ability to support refunds and reissues.”
We’re excited to welcome S7 as a customer.
To learn more about QPX visit
www.itasoftware.com
.
Nicola Simionato, General Manager, Travel EMEA & APAC
Ok Google. Find me a hotel...
Friday, May 09, 2014
It’s
U.S. National Travel & Tourism week
-- whether you’re traveling for business or pleasure, you can plan it all from your mobile phone.
Let’s say you’re on a business trip in Miami and you decide to stay through the weekend to head down to Key West. You can say “Ok Google, show me tourist attractions in Key West”. Quickly you see there are a ton of fun things to do near Key West: you can visit the Butterfly and Nature Conservatory, take a tour of Ernest Hemingway’s house and relax with a Margarita on the sunny beaches!
Now you need to find a hotel. Just ask your phone again, “Ok Google, show me hotels with a view in Key West.” You’ll find several nice options and you can tap on one to see more details about the hotel, including photos and reviews. You can easily scroll through the photos to get a better feel for what the hotels look like.
You can also tap on “See inside” to take a 360° tour of the hotel and property with
Google Maps Business View
. Just a few taps later and you’re booked at the Southernmost on the Beach Hotel.
You can also check business hours for the attractions you want to visit, get directions from your hotel (whether you’re walking or driving) and figure out which restaurants to hit up while you’re there -- even filtered by type of cuisine. Ask your phone “Ok Google, show me seafood restaurants in Key West.” If you further filter by ratings, you’ll see our hotel has a highly rated, surfside dining spot. You can also use the “See inside” 360° tour to see the awesome view from the cafe.
We hope our tips for using your phone to figure out where to go, what to do and where to stay will help you plan an amazing vacation. Try saying ‘Ok Google…” and start planning your next trip today.
Posted by Lin Classon, Product Marketing Manager, Travel
Labels
Case studies
Corporate news
Customers
Google Flights
Google Flights price tracking
Google hotel search
Google Travel Blog
Guest post
Hotel Deals
hotel search on google
Hotels
Industry news
Mobile
New features
product announcements
Products
Smart Filters
Travel
User tips
Videos
Archive
2016
Jul
Mar
Feb
2015
Nov
Oct
Sep
Feb
2014
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2013
Dec
Nov
Jul
May
Mar
Feb
Jan
2012
Dec
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2011
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Feed
Follow @googletravel
Give us feedback in our
Product Forums
.
