Web Buzz: Google’s hotel finder helps map out your trip

Before you pledge allegiance to one hotel search engine, you might want to run Google’s new hotel finder up your flagpole. Deals are flying high.

Name: Google.com/hotelfinder

What it does: Provides an easy-to-use hotel search feature. It looks a lot like the one for Kayak Hotels, but with no ads.

What’s hot: Allows you to adjust your location search area by manipulating the Google map. So, instead of searching the entire city, you can fine-tune your search by manipulating flexible mapping lines and search just an area around a convention center, or museum, for example. Bargain hunters, don’t miss the column called “Compared to typical” in the search results, which lets you know whether the current price is more or less than a typical room price at that hotel over the last year.

What’s not: The individual hotel pages feature Google reviews first. If you want to read testimonials from other travel sites you trust, such as TripAdvisor, Zagat, Travelpod or Travel.Yahoo, click on “All reviews” to find them.

—Jen Leo