How Google Search Works

Google, the search engine giant searches more than 40,000 pages per second or billions of web pages per day. Search starts with the web and it is made up of over 60 trillion individual pages and the number is constantly growing.


How the search giant finds relevant results of your search query in the blink of an eye? Explore the art and science that makes it possible. Google does it in three steps – Crawling & Indexing, Algorithms & Spam Filter.

See more here How Google Works

Crawling & Indexing

Google use software known as “Web Crawlers”, it searches trillions of web pages and gathers the information and provides you the most useful results. Crawlers finds link to link, page to page and bring data about those web pages back to Google’s servers.

Algorithms

Google has spent more than one million computing hours to build their 100,000,000 gigabytes index which finds billions of queries in a fraction of second. This search query is based on an algorithm- a complex computer program and formulas which brings the answers to your search query.


Fighting Spam

Spam sites use various techniques such as repeating keywords or putting invisible links over and over to game their way to the top of search ranking. Google fight with these spam sites through a combination of computer algorithms and manual review and finds the legitimate websites of your search query.

See full story here How Google Works

Newshound: Trends and Reports – Hotel Online Distribution


5 key trends in hotel distribution

The rapidly evolving distribution landscape emerged as a focal point during a panel at September’s Annual Conference for the International Society of Hospitality Consultants. During the conference, John Burns of Hospitality Technology Consulting shared five key trends every hotelier should keep an eye on.
http://hotelnewsnow.com/Articles.aspx/9283/5-key-trends-in-hotel-distribution

Semantic search will be standard across online travel by 2020

Technology continues to push the travel, tourism and hospitality industry forward and make it more dynamic than ever before. But the next phase is where it gets REALLY exciting. For background, this week I took part in a panel discussion at World Travel Market in London alongside Nate Bucholz, industry head for travel at Google, and Andrew Jones, head of search account management at Bing.
http://www.tnooz.com/2012/11/08/news/semantic-search-will-be-standard-across-online-travel-by-2020/

Priceline-Kayak deal: Marketing expertise & global footprint at heart of $1.8 billion takeover

Priceline is acquiring Kayak for $1.8 billion in cash and stock. Yes, read it again. While unexpected, interestingly the news does not fundamentally tell us anything about the industry. Unless, that is, aside from Priceline’s willingness to use its strong stock performance to continue its aggressive growth.
http://www.tnooz.com/2012/11/08/news/priceline-kayak-deal-marketing-expertise-and-global-footprint-at-heart-of-1-8-billion-takeover/#mcFwBaR3aTDH0kmE.99

Exploring TripAdvisor as a demand generator

Market Metrix indicated that in 2010 user reviews became the biggest determining factor in why guests chose a specific hotel. Using online consumer panel data from comScore, we illustrate the upstream impact of TripAdvisor on online hotel reservations; specifically we show that the fraction of consumers consulting reviews at TripAdvisor before booking a hotel room has steadily increased from 2008 through 2010. Not only has the fraction of consumers visiting TripAdvisor increased, but also so has the number of reviews they are reading before making their hotel choice.
http://hotelnewsnow.com/Articles.aspx/9281/Exploring-TripAdvisor-as-a-demand-generator

Social Travel Infographic

Social Travel becomes a travel-planning trend. With so much information available online, it’s almost impossible to using any kind of social media. Reviews, Facebook, Twitter and blogs are all amazingly helpful in planning travel of any kind. Obviously, you are already doing at least some social travel, since you read this blog.
http://beforeitsnews.com/travel/2012/10/social-travel-infographic-10-26-12-2447076.html