(Insider Report) - Let’s face it; Google is perhaps the most happening company in the IT industry right now. It’s witnessing tremendous growth and it’s competitors are biting their nails and pulling out their hair while they spend sleepless nights as the worst is yet to come.

Google Earth has been a runaway success and it is definitely the most remarkable piece of software I have come across in quite some time. Recently, I was in a city I hadn’t been to before and didn’t know much about. I had to drive to my cousin’s house, which was around 40 miles away from where I was staying. Considering I knew nothing about the city, I needed to find a way to get to her place without getting lost. Enters Google Earth…

I got hold of a friend who knew the directions and made him mark the path on Google Earth. After that, all I did was followed the marked lines (flyovers, intersections, traffic lights et al), and reached my destination without getting lost, as I knew exactly where to turn, thanks to Google.

I would’ve been content with Google Earth, but obviously Google itself is not. It wants to go all the way and target online travel sites. Industry sources close to Google and a select number of traveling sites confirmed that the search giant is expected to launch a travel site of its own, which will directly compete against Expedia, Travelocity and a host of similar sites.

What Google can do within the purview of this service is frightfully interesting. It can search for and give you the absolute best fares from virtually all travel sites on the web (similar to a major aggregator). It will then move forward and give you the best rates on your hotel room in a similar fashion.

But that’s not it. Google will probably go ahead and give you directions to the hotel and its surrounding locations, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing for us, as consumers.

A preview of Google’s upcoming travel site is already available at the following URL: www.google.com/ncr. This ensures that you go to Google.com and don’t get redirected to your country specific website. In the search box, type the name of any two cities (New York San Jose), click "Search" and see what you get.

Google could definitely make online bookings a lot easier by giving customers the best deals directly from Google, in return slaying revenue from aforementioned travel sites.

The timeframe for the launch of this service (travel.google.com?) is currently unknown.