Why wait for Google Travel, the long-awaited travel initiative from the search engine giant? You can Google your trip now.
But first, allow me a disclaimer. I have a love-hate relationship with The Google. There are a number of things that bother me about the company and how it does business, but it still makes awesome products.
Here are four ways to use Google’s suite of products to travel more efficiently. Most of these can apply to any of the online services (Yahoo, Windows Live!, etc.), so you’re not forced to immerse yourself fully in the Google Ecosystem.
1. PDF backups of travel documents emailed to yourself.
I admit, I traveled for the longest time without keeping copies of my travel documents in case something bad happened. Let’s be honest – not many of us do it. One day, I made it a point to scan all my documents to PDF, which was a lot less time-intensive than I would have thought. I tagged all of my travel documents with the label ICE (In Case of Emergency), so they’re easily accessible and I don’t accidentally delete them. You should also password protect the PDFs for additional security – but you need to make the password complex enough but yet easily remembered in case you are panicking because of a lost passport and not thinking clearly.
The thinking is that if my travel wallet goes missing and I can’t find it, instead of freaking out I can try to be calm and log into my email and print out PDF copies of my passport, spare passport photos, credit card info and start making phone calls in order to make the arrangements in order to get home.
2. Using Google Documents for travel collaboration.
When my friend Tim and his darling wife Holly and I went to India in November of last year for a 10-day vacation, we used Google Documents to keep track of our travel itinerary and expenses. Over the course of a few months, our ideas on what to do and how we should do it over hundreds of emails got put into nice clean itineraries that we all could look at and reference. It was easier to say “it’s on the latest itinerary” than “Hey, remember that one email I sent about that stuff?”
3. Google SMS
I fly out of Chicago O’Hare a lot, which on good days resembles a crowded mess. And with transit to the airport along with security being variables, I can’t really time it right so I have a minimal amount of time before I get on the plane. With the frequency of gate changes and last minute things that I’ve forgotten — I often forget to check the weather at my destination — I’m able to use Google SMS to send a text to GOOGLE (466453) and check flight information, weather, and restaurants. This came in handy over the weekend when I overestimated the amount of time to get to the airport and through security and ended up killing off time by drinking a margarita or three before getting on my flight and needed to find gate information. I personally use Google SMS daily, to check the cost of items at various stores to see if things are truly on sale, the weather, and the phone number to restaurants so I can call for reservations.
4. Google Maps
Throughout all the years I’ve been traveling, I’ve never been able to find the perfect map. I would buy the laminated maps and mark all over them and have post it notes with arrows pointing to cool things I wanted to see or do. Those, of course, would fall off, rendering my map plain and boring again.
Google Maps and Microsoft Live Search Maps both allow you to add pushpins and “mark up” your maps. I use pushpins to label everything, from places I want to see to where I’m staying to the cool and unusual things I’ve read about. I’m able to add links and photos to each pushpin, so instead of a pushpin indicating the Taj Mahal, I can add a link to the obligatory Wikipedia entry on the subject. And better yet, when I get back from my trip, I can add a link to my photos of that particular spot.
Back to my India trip as an example, I created a Google Maps Mashup. This took about 30 minutes or so to create, using my multiple guidebooks to label things that we wanted to see or do. Instead of a boring map, I have something that’s dynamic and easily shared.
Click for biggification!
Google has a lot of cool tools which seem like they are not interconnected, but you can use them in multiple ways to manage and plan all aspects of your trip, from collaborating and planning to using it in case of emergencies. With travel bringing more and more uncertainties every time we step into the airport, it helps to have an advantage.
Got a tech question? Send me a note and I’ll answer it in a future column.
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For items 2-3, I prefer TripIt (http://www.tripit.com). It’s easy to use. You send your confirmations to them by e-mail and they automatically parse and add them to new or existing trips, with maps for any addresses identified. I also like that I can share them with my family so they know what hotel I’m at, for example. Some of my suggestions for changes have been implemented quickly, and they’re small enough to provide great user support. I don’t use the SMS feature, but it’s there too.
I am not affiliated with them, just a happy user.
I use TripIt myself for the overall itinerary for hotels and flights. It makes my family less nervous when I run around the globe. It is pretty awesome. I’ve ditched WorldMate Live on the Blackberry because it’s a memory hog and sucks.
When Tim and Holly and I were planning India, we were juggling a tour itinerary and adding/removing things all the time. Since Tim and I are IT nerds, we decided to collaborate.
WorldMate Live does suck. There was a problem with the software so I contacted support. I had to email them twice just to get an response.
Guess what they said?
We only support Gold Members. Can you believe that crap? They didn’t even want to know what the problem was. And at the time it wasn’t even indicated on their web site that they only support Gold members. Regardless, they have some issues to iron out and customer service is the most important as far as I’m concerned.