[phsource]

This 100%. In travel, we see Google constantly tweaking its algorithms, and compared to Bing, Google surfaces a ton more small, well-written travel blogs [1]

Not only that, Paul and Michael have seen plenty of startups, and at least in recent memory, the number of vertical search and consumer startups that Y Combinator has funded hasn't been that high

As a consumer startup, I know this issue firsthand. Paul and Michael assume that if you build a better product, they will come! That's simply not true these days.

Instead, you need to:

- Build a better product

- Option 1: Figure out a channel with enough growth on an existing platform. This likely means you're doing SEO for your new search engine

- Option 2: Get your customer lifetime value high enough so you can pay for ads. This is tough, since it's a bit of a chicken and the egg problem since most search engines are monetized with ads

As the founder of Wanderlog (YC W19; https://wanderlog.com), a consumer vacation planning app [1], I definitely remember the idealistic days when I thought the best consumer product on its own would win! But growth doesn't just come, and the same can be said of vertical-specific search engines.

[1] Try searching "[your city] itinerary" on Google vs. Bing: it's much more likely you'll find a small blog rather than Lonely Planet or the local travel bureau as the top result

[padastra]

Hi! I used Wanderlog to plan a recent month-long group trip, which was definitely the most complex vacation I've had to plan. For context I am very active when traveling (e.g. multiple activities each day); so not sure how my experiences map to others.

The best part of it was (going to a foreign country) being able to find / identify all the attractions relative to each other, so I could go to cluster A on Monday, cluster B, on Tuesday, etc.

The hardest part of it (and why I needed to create a separate google sheets anyways) was--once I figured out opening hours of different locations, hard-to-book activities with limited reservations--the ease of moving things around more fluidly e.g. cluster B on Monday, cluster A on Tuesday, etc. and having a more information-dense view so I could see larger portions of the itinerary at once.

It would be cool to have an "input everything" --> "input time restrictions / unmovable things" --> output planned activity cluster type workflow.

[judge2020]

[1]: both signed in, but with the profile image removed

Bing: https://i.judge.sh/ShareX/2022/01/www.bing.com_search_q%3Dat...

Google: https://i.judge.sh/ShareX/2022/01/www.google.com_search_q%3D...

Interestingly Google didn't have a top-result ad and the google.com/travel carousel is 4th from the bottom.

For the actual results, both thefearlessforeigner.com and paigemindsthegap.com seem to be actual travel blogs (the pictures didn't appear in a reverse image search, so they are probably organic), but they're clearly geared towards being a 'faq' for visiting the city and have affiliate links where appropriate. Bing went straight for discoveratlanta.com, and frommers.com is well-thought-out but not a personal travel blog.

[noduerme]

>> - Option 2: Get your customer lifetime value high enough so you can pay for ads. This is tough, since it's a bit of a chicken and the egg problem since most search engines are monetized with ads

nonoonononooonono. No. Don't monetize anything for the first 10 years. That's the only way it can work. Then you can go monetize it and buy an island and not give a shit if you destroy what you created.

Oh but don't worry. You'll have investors.