Google holds on to social media accounts in Frommer's deal
The pages that were formerly known as, say, FrommersTravel, are now being labeled as ZagatTravel.
Google might have sold off its Frommer's division, but the company seemingly hasn't given up all of the social media accounts that were tied to the brand.
The folks over at PaidContent yesterday noticed that the former Twitter account, @FrommersTravel, has had its name changed to @ZagatTravel. Zagat is fully owned by Google. Frommer's Facebook, YouTube, Foursquare, Google+, and Pinterest accounts were also deleted with followers likely to be transferred to equivalent Zagat accounts.
Google acquired Frommer's from Wiley & Sons last year for an undisclosed price. Earlier this month, Google announced that it had sold the company to its former leader Arthur Frommer. For Frommer, the deal allows him to return to printing his travel guides in both e-book and hard copy. Google had previously killed off the print format.
Google, though, appears to have seen Frommer's as more than just an opportunity to expand its presence in the travel game. As the company itself noted in a statement to CNET last week, it integrated much of the "travel content we acquired from Wiley into Google+ Local and our other Google services."
PaidContent argues that Google might have simply acquired Frommer's for the social-media data and potentially millions of users that it now communicates with through Zagat. However, that seems highly unlikely, considering Google itself noted how it used Frommer's information. It seems more likely -- even with a company as wealthy as Google that might throw cash around -- that the company simply had a change of heart on Frommer's and decided to go its own way. And in the process, it kept social-media accounts.