local - 2:31 am on Mar 25, 2010 (gmt 0)

I do not think the public will go to G maps to search for hotels

I regularly go to maps.google.com and search for hotels. I find the hotels I like near the places I want to be, then I go elsewhere to book them. Usually directly to the hotel's site.

I'm sure the hotel itself will be an advertiser on the map, so this will save me a step or two. So looked at as a stand alone thing, this isn't a bad thing.

That said .. .as a publisher that has previously been disintermediated by Google, this is another scary example of Google on their path to being a bigger monopoly.