Google Buys Another Local Guide Company — We Try And Remember The Last Time We Used Frommer’s

Update: The purchase price was an astonishing low $23 Millon.

Back in the olden days, one used to buy a guidebook before going on a trip. You probably headed down to the local Waldenbooks or B. Dalton and paid a ton of money for a book you’d probably use only a couple times. Well given that both of those book sellers are dead, you probably haven’t bought a guide book in years. I looked back into my Amazon purchase history and I’ve never bought a guide book in almost 20 years of using Amazon, either for myself or as a gift.

Well guidebooks are back in the news.

[Google] is acquiring the Frommer’s travel brand from publicly traded [John Wiley & Sons Inc.] for an undisclosed price in order to bolster its offerings of local reviews around the world. Google is buying the Frommer’s brand of travel guides from publishing house John Wiley & Sons for an undisclosed price, Jeffrey Trachtenberg reports on digits.

In Frommer’s, Google sees an opportunity to broaden its consumer offerings outside of restaurant reviews.

Makes sense right? How do we find reviews of hotels and travel spots? For me it’s Trip Advisor or Yelp, but others just type it into Google Search. Zagat is restaurant reviews and Frommer’s is more destination guides. Combined, Google now has reviews to take on Yelp, Trip Advisor and any other small companies that wouldn’t sell themselves to the borg.

Of course what does it mean to the staff of Frommer’s? At first you are excited you won a gold medal were acquired by one of the best companies to work for, but then you realize no, we got second you are a publisher of paperback books in a company that is trying to kill of the medium. Best of luck guys!

Wait, we got secondWait, we got second


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Date
August 13, 2012