For the last two weeks or so, there appears to be some sort of tussle going on between Google and TripAdvisor.
Apparently, TripAdvisor has been trying to prevent reviews from their travel site appearing on Google’s Place Pages.
TripAdvisor has even issued an email to the effect that ‘while it continues to evaluate recent changes to Google Places it believes the user does not benefit with the “experience of selecting the right hotel. As a result, we have currently limited TripAdvisor content available on those pages,”
On the other hand, Google has attributed the absence of TripAdvisor reviews from Place Pages, to a technical snag.
One of the possible reasons, for TripAdvisor wanting to discontinue providing their reviews on Place Pages, could be their opposition to Google acquiring the travel software company ITA.
Another possibility is that they may be concerned about possible loss of traffic to their site, if their reviews are available on Place Pages, as Google is now focusing a lot on local search.
However, some reviews from TripAdvisor have continued to intermittently appear on Place Pages, sending out rather confusing signals to users. TripAdvisor has claimed that this only means that they have not been entirely successful in blocking Google.
In the meantime, Facebook has recently announced a partnership with TripAdvisor.
Facebook will now be able to get reviews from TripAdvisor, and reviews and comments from friends of a user, will be placed on the top.
Now, when a user is logged in to his Facebook account and visits TripAdvisor, he will receive reviews from his friends, which will be more valuable to him than general reviews. A map will also show the places which his friends have visited and their favourite destinations.
