July 16th Update: Today I received another email from TripIt informing me that there is a problem with Gmail and I need to reset the connection. Odd how these things work?
July 1st Update: A couple of hours after this posted I got a reply from TripIt saying they had been in touch with Google and were hoping for a resolution soon. 24 hours later I received another email from Google saying they were in error in blocking TripIt – so never mind…
Almost two years ago I discovered TripIt to keep track of our travel plans. I outlined this in a post about our experience with Google Travel and why I preferred TripIt. I do have a Gmail account and for a number of reasons, with one being that Google does too good a job reading my email and sharing information it finds with third parties. I have started using Gmail for only dealing with online shopping accounts. Email that really matters I have redirected to other email accounts. I do use online travel sites on occasion for booking (Expedia, Hotels.com, airlines, etcetera*) and it was easier to leave them connected to Gmail. That included TripIt which does a great job of searching my Gmail and adding those reservations to my itineraries.
What all of this boiled down to was I decided that I should be the one deciding on who has access to my information and who provides the most worthwhile service.
Today I got an Email from Google informing me that they were blocking access to my Gmail by TripIt…
We have been very happy with TripIt. I can make changes easily using my laptop or tablet and everything is quickly synced my my and my wife’s phone apps. Entering cruise itineraries takes a little work but that beats not being able to do it at all.
Considering our experience with the intrusive way Google explores our email content, it seems like a case of the pot calling the kettle black. Who do you think is David and who is Goliath? This will now require me to change my contact address with all my travel related sites to continue keeping my itineraries up to date with TripIt. I have also sent a message to them asking for their reaction and will do an update…
*Never Booking.com, see reasons HERE.
intend2travel.info 