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Reposting myself on the subject[1]: For anyone not aware (or confused by Silicon Valley tradition on constantly rewriting origin stories), TripAdvisor started

Reposting myself on the subject[1]: For anyone not aware (or confused by Silicon Valley tradition on constantly rewriting origin stories), TripAdvisor started in the dot com bubble as a B2B site. They clearly stated their business model was to provide reviews to other sites. Only that after the bubble burst, TripAdvisor had none left. They then basically invented modern SEO: long descriptive URLs, pages pulled out of a db with keyword variations in mind, constantly refreshing content with user submissions, and, the killer, buying links to influence Google’s naive ranking methods (which quickly evolved this to buying entire sites for their SEO potential). The billion dollar public valuation is entirely the result of a decade long SEO play. (Source: was in online travel related business at the time. Was the first to buy links form Matt at SeatGuru, later acquired by TripAdvisor) [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21516006 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21516006

mambojumbo 7y ago
This comment ads nothing of particular value. TripAdvisor, just like many of the businesses that thrived around Google and search engines in general, use SEO to promote their own services. Nothing wrong with that. The wrong bit here is that Google is acting as a dangerous monopoly, disregarding privacy and as of recently, shamelessly stealing markets from its own customers. Few years ago in Europe it was sanctioned for stealing news from news agencies, and the echo chamber around hn criticised news agencies and governments trying to prevent this madness.
- jshevek 7y ago
  I learned something from ronilans comment.
ProAm 7y ago
The truth is most companies tend to last ~20 years (from mom and pop to larger ones) if they are successful. You're lucky if you make it further. This is one of those that isn't going to last much further.
- Marazan 7y ago
  Google is eating the travel industry. Search for anything travel related and you get pages of Google products and advertising widgets before you get to the first organic result. The change over the last 5 years is huge.
  - allovernow 7y ago
    When I first found Google flights a couple years ago it was ahead of all the other trip aggregators and unbelievably cheaper too. I think it forced the cheapo tickets craze because I had never seen $50 cross country tickets before that, and it practically destroyed all the little deals and gentlemens agreements that the other aggregators undoubtedly had.
    - Marazan 7y ago
      Google Flights lack inventory (as they are powered by a GDS so anyone not filing to that GDS will be missing) and to get their incredible speed they cache and calculate prices which results in frequent pricing misses as well.
      - MLpractitioner 7y ago
        Pretty soon they'll have enough traffic nobody will be able to afford to fillng the GDS
  - unlinked_dll 7y ago
    Just looking for simple statistics and numbers on the tourism and hospitality industry is difficult on google. Every query just returns ads.
fouc 7y ago
Tripadvisor has a strong forum/community, will google's shallow places reviews kill that? Maybe. Tripadvisor seems somewhat similar to Foursquare, and foursquare seems to be surviving on with their Swarm check-in app and their paid API service etc.

mambojumbo 7y ago

This comment ads nothing of particular value. TripAdvisor, just like many of the businesses that thrived around Google and search engines in general, use SEO to promote their own services. Nothing wrong with that. The wrong bit here is that Google is acting as a dangerous monopoly, disregarding privacy and as of recently, shamelessly stealing markets from its own customers. Few years ago in Europe it was sanctioned for stealing news from news agencies, and the echo chamber around hn criticised news agencies and governments trying to prevent this madness.

jshevek 7y ago
I learned something from ronilans comment.

ProAm 7y ago

The truth is most companies tend to last ~20 years (from mom and pop to larger ones) if they are successful. You're lucky if you make it further. This is one of those that isn't going to last much further.

Marazan 7y ago
Google is eating the travel industry. Search for anything travel related and you get pages of Google products and advertising widgets before you get to the first organic result. The change over the last 5 years is huge.
- allovernow 7y ago
  When I first found Google flights a couple years ago it was ahead of all the other trip aggregators and unbelievably cheaper too. I think it forced the cheapo tickets craze because I had never seen $50 cross country tickets before that, and it practically destroyed all the little deals and gentlemens agreements that the other aggregators undoubtedly had.
  - Marazan 7y ago
    Google Flights lack inventory (as they are powered by a GDS so anyone not filing to that GDS will be missing) and to get their incredible speed they cache and calculate prices which results in frequent pricing misses as well.
    - MLpractitioner 7y ago
      Pretty soon they'll have enough traffic nobody will be able to afford to fillng the GDS
- unlinked_dll 7y ago
  Just looking for simple statistics and numbers on the tourism and hospitality industry is difficult on google. Every query just returns ads.

fouc 7y ago

Tripadvisor has a strong forum/community, will google's shallow places reviews kill that? Maybe. Tripadvisor seems somewhat similar to Foursquare, and foursquare seems to be surviving on with their Swarm check-in app and their paid API service etc.