Google has just debuted the latest entry to its fleet of Labs products, introducing the search giant to the travel space. Dubbed City Tours, the new site can build itineraries for brief trips to locations around the globe in a matter of seconds. At this point details on the new product are fairly sparse — it looks like Google hasn’t written its customary blog post yet, but given how basic the product is it’s pretty easy to figure out how it works.
Getting started is incredibly easy — just type in where you’re visiting (say, San Francisco or London), and Google will present a suggested itinerary spanning a three day trip, with around a dozen attractions per day depending on the city. From there you can change the number of days you’ll be staying (Google will show more attractions the longer you stay), and you can also manually adjust the list of places you’d like to visit. You can add a new attraction by entering its name in a text field, and Google will try to find it in its database. All attractions include a star rating, along with its hours operation and location.
For the most part adding attractions works pretty well (which is going to be key given that you can’t expect Google to predict everything you’ll want to see). It managed to find the London Eye perfectly, and it even figured out that Platform 9¾ was located at the King’s Cross Rail Station. That said, it isn’t perfect: a search for Hyde Park directed me to a nearby hostel, which I suppose would have gotten me there but probably isn’t the ideal result.
Perhaps the coolest part of the new product is the way it uses Google Maps to figure out which locations are closest to each other. Rather than simply present a list of places Google thinks you might want to check out, the site will logically order them according to where they’re located, minimizing the travel time between each.
Given its status as a Labs product this shouldn’t come as much of a surprise, but there are still a few kinks in City Tours. For one, I am apparently unable to remove events from my suggested itinerary (I’ve tried in both Firefox and Safari with the same issue). Likewise, sometimes when I click on the name of a location nothing happens. And it badly needs support for Google Transit, which can automatically route you across town using public transportiation — my London tour included a 99 minute walk that would have only been a couple minutes away had I ridden on the Tube.
In the mean time, there are plenty of other travel sites that offer similar (and in many cases, more robust) functionality than Google’s City Tours, including TC50 finalist GoPlanit, Offbeat Guides, and Zicasso.
I think that after the kinks are worked out City Tours is going to be incredibly popular.
It’s boring!!!
I disagree with the fact that it is boring. I think there are two different markets in this City Tours space though. The first is in quick picks for travelers with little time in one area. The second is for in-depth research on a given location including recommendations, history, etc. City Tours may not address the second point, but then again does it need to?
Kinda defeats the whole purpose of traveling/ exploring/random experiencing. I’m more inclined to search for worthwhile sites but not a full-blown itinerary.
I prefer that too when I’ve got the time, but if you’re only in town for a few days it’s probably best to make the most of it.
This is good initiative by Google.com.After the launch of Bing google is more alert by MSN.
Another thing is that Google having all the sources of data about anything so let’s see
This is good initiative by Google.com.After the launch of Bing google is more alert by MSN.
Another thing is that Google having all the sources of data about anything so let’s see
BTW I love your blog!
I agree. It does sound like a great initiative. Maybe they just need some time to work out its flaws.
BTW I love your spam!
From the title, it was easy to confuse this item with Space Travel!
I think it’s a great idea. It’s got a lot of potential and helps to promote attractions that you might not otherwise hear about. Just found out there’s a Butter Museum around the corner from my house. Who knew!
You’re wasting your time, don’t bother it’s not going to happen.
It looks cool but has a long way to go. I’ve just tried out my city (Toronto) and it has failed to list even the most basic sights (i.e. the CN Tower) and even when one is added manually (i.e. Casa Loma) it comes up with an imperfect match (Casa Loma Catering.) Neat to be sure, but definitely still an early, early Labs project.
I think it’s a great idea. I Lovet it..
Definitely not boring – try searching Prague.
(makes me wonder how does Google choose in what should I be interested:)
Google CityTour helps a lot, especially for someone who just arrive in a new place and a tourist who lost his map in rough wind. Hopefully Google CityTour will include cities in south east Asia too (Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia).
The comparison for Google CityTour with other similar provider also good, very helpful.
Thank you.
It is pretty cool. Although it looks like its need some TLC still. Some developer probably created this in his garage for 1 year and Google came by offering a pizza and a six pack and took idea like they always do.
Kinda cool, but map lists are something generated organically by users, and often with better results. The automatically generated list lacks a theme, whereas a hand-picked list has character. If Google gave better support to making map lists, and used an algorithm to suggest (or sponsor $) similar locations, that’d be more interesting to me.
I agree with you. Try http://www.witur.com, I have been using it for a while and the itineraries are very detailed
Seems like a very cool idea, and makes good sense. The product does need to be refined to include other ‘touristy’ type activities aside from museums.
If you love her…
If you love her, let her go to Lijiang, let her grow with the warm sunshine of Lijiang.
If you hate her, let her go to Lijiang, let her disappear at the horizon.
If you want to feel the natural world, let me take you to worship the Jade Dragon Snow Mountain.
If you want to get renascence, let me take you to the mystical Daughters Garden.
How to save or print this itinerary?