After running a story this morning we were contacted by Google and told this speculation was completely unfounded and inaccurate.... sorry Google

Published: 17 Apr 2006

After running a story this morning we were contacted by Google and told this speculation was completely unfounded and inaccurate.... sorry Google

The story below is according to Google completely inaccurate, despite reports in the national press and speculation in certain blogs.

“Google is planning to make an announcement in London tomorrow, although it has kept the subject of the press briefing tightly under wraps, and it is by no means necessarily the case that the London briefing will involve Google Travel,” reported Times Online yesterday.

As per the report, “the speculation regarding Google Travel began following the placing of a recruitment advertisement by the American search giant before the Easter weekend which sought a - Senior Account Executive, Travel Vertical.” It also pointed to the job advertisement, which said: “Your main responsibility is to drive new business revenue growth with our Fortune 1000 advertisers in a specified vertical in one or more regions.”

“It is speculated that Google Travel’s plans may well also include offering high-bandwidth streaming video of selected destinations and properties. Much of the reporting on travel and technology specialist websites has centred on the likely identity of any partner for Google,” it added.

One of the blogs, too, indicated the same. In Internet parlance, “Vertical” is often used to describe specialized content organized into a channel. The travel vertical may not be available now, but referring to the same recruitment, it said: “all this lingo really sounds to me that Google is building a Google Travel brand. This position is for someone to draw advertisers to that brand.”

On requirements such as content, the blog added Google could work with any number of content partners, but could also include travel selections from its Google Video inventory. On booking engine, considering partnerships such as Travelocity and Yahoo; Expedia and Hotels.being owned by interActive, which runs Ask.com, Orbitz is being tipped to be the likely partner.