Imagine what you would do without Google at your fingertips? No quick suggestions on where to eat near you, or help with finding the best tourist attractions to visit. If you didn’t already know, Google rules the world, and it has done a hell of a job making all of our lives a lot easier. Google is so essential in our lives that in 2006, the dictionary introduced the verb ‘Google it‘ to its index. What do you do when you don’t know the answer to any mind boggling question in the world — just Google it. 
Not only is Google a platform for people to search infinite amounts of topics, but Google itself has created many different tools that assist the every day traveler. From things as simple as Google Maps, all the way to a system that can help a traveler book flights and hotels, Google really does have it all.
In the beginning, Google assisted travelers in a very simplistic way. They provided travelers with things like Google Maps, Google Translate, or Google Calendar to help travelers with the simple things. Google Maps is helpful for pre-departure research, and can also be used in the moment when looking to get from one place to another. It can help a traveler get from their hotel to their tourist attraction and back. For those traveling outside of their home country, Google Translate can be very helpful. Not only does this tool translate what you type into it, but it can also translate language from pictures or audio. This is a big step from when Google Translate was first created and languages had to be translated into English as an intermediary step language, and even after translated, it wasn’t guaranteed that the grammar was correct. Now, Google Translate can help travelers feel more comfortable when they are traveling, knowing that they will be able to understand the basic language and can even attempt to speak it if they wish.
Just when you thought it could not get any better, in 2016, Google launched the app Google Trips. This technology is basically the right man hand for any traveler on the go. It’s like a personal travel assistant with you at all times. And the best part is, once everything has been worked out, you can save the data for offline usage. Watch below to get a better understanding of how the technology works.
As a young traveler who is starting to plan all of my trips on my own, without my parents or any professional help, this app sounds like it would take a lot of stress out of the process. Before I came abroad to Spain, all of my traveling had been with family or on an organized trip. Because of that, I had the luxury of having everything planned out for me. From the outside, traveling seems fun and effortless, but once I had to start planning everything on my own, it became very stressful. I was always questioning if I was spending the right amount of money, if I was looking at an Airbnb in the right neighborhood, or how my friends and I were going to see everything we wanted to in one day. Even some of my trips didn’t turn out to be as successful as I would have hoped because of poor planning. It’s not that we didn’t do enough research, more that we did not have the right tools to give us the answers we needed.
With this app, I wouldn’t have to question any of my travel decisions anymore. As explained on The Verge, the basis of this app isn’t just about planning the trip beforehand, but also being there for the user during the trip. One thing that my friends and I always struggle with when we are traveling is our service. With this app, we could plan everything before we leave, and even without service, we would still be able to access all of the information we saved. No more waiting for my connection to come back or for the page to load!
In the end, I feel like Google is always working to better my life and the lives of those around me. If I’m being honest here, I am not sure where we would be today without our best friend Google. So go see the world, and let Google handle the rest for you!
Europe A La Carte 