By now, it should be no secret that Google wants to get up in your
online trip-planning business (if it wasn't somehow there already).
First, there was the announcement that El Goog would buy ITA, the
company serving up pretty much all of your online ticketing options -- a
deal that still hasn't closed. Then came flight schedule searches
and now, the outfit's rounding it all out by throwing hotels into the
mix. The company just launched Hotel Finder, a service that lets you --
wait for it -- find a place to lay your weary head in these great fifty
states. At first glance, it's little more than a specific use case for
Google Maps -- just type in a city or US zip code to get a map with the
usual spreads of pinpoints. Though Google won't be the middleman booking
your hotel reservation, you can use the tool to fine-tune your search,
drawing circles on the map to scour multiple neighborhoods. As you'd
expect, you can also whittle the search by price and rating, and read
reviews that people originally posted on Google Maps. One thing we're
liking about the UI is that you don't have to open a new tab to read the
full spill on a hotel -- you can just click the listing to see it
expand right there, alongside pretty photo collages. Hit the source link
to poke around, though if its bare-bones simplicity turns you off,
don't say Google didn't warn you -- the tool is so new that Google isn't
calling it a "beta" so much as an...experiment.
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