Travel Technology

Google is all grown up now and won't take chances on integrating Waze's reports about police speed traps into Google Maps. That takes some of the life and authenticity out of the Waze community.

Priceline Hotels Pro may become the next version of, or a twist on, Express Deals. Priceline shows the price up-front and identifies the handful of the hotels in the mix to give travelers additional confidence in where they might stay. But, there is enough wiggle room for the hotels to participate behind a Pro app without diminishing their brands.

Private company Sabre must be taking a financial beating behind the scenes as CEO Gilliland's exit was carried out in a very clumsy manner. Is there trouble in IPO land with owners TPG and Silver Lake getting very impatient about their own exits?

eLong is putting its money, specifically $100 million of it, precisely where the company believes its future is, in mobile hotel technology. This initiative has certain parallels with what Concur is doing in using its own, larger investment fund, to encourage the development of travel startups doing interesting things.

It's tough to say that Bloomberg's lasting legacy will be New York City's transportation transformation with so many changes taking place in the past 12 years. We can say with confidence that the improvements are still just small steps towards insuring the city keeps pace with well-designed sustainable urban initiatives abroad.

Do you want great hotel rates for tonight, or do you want all the rates for tonight that are available on mobile? Hipmunk is banking on its belief that travelers will go for the latter so they don't have to hop around from app to app.

If you want to use Google Glass in an automobile, hire an Uber black car, rent a Zipcar and have a friend get behind the wheel as a designated driver, or borrow a Google driver-less vehicle. Otherwise, the ticket inevitably will be more expensive than, well, shelling out for Google Glass.

Google Maps is the world's biggest funnel to destination-specific information, and it only makes sense to focus content on those users. Whether or not Zagat's distinctive ratings system and brand voice will continue to rise to the top remains to be seen.

Spin it however you want to: These changes to Gmail are a potential nightmare for travel marketers who may see their emails to customers end up under a Promotions tab, which is one step above spam.

Trover is a beautiful and fun photo-sharing app, but the company faces some of the same challenges that most startups confront: How do you scale the business so users know you exist? With an additional $2.5 million in funding from Concur, and with other well-connected backers involved, little Trover can hang around for awhile.