Travel site staff join Google

The team behind online travel site Ruba is to join Google to work on iGoogle and other products.

Ruba is a visual travel guide and tour review site that includes user-generated content.

The site is headed by Mike Cassidy, founder of a number of successful companies, including Xfire, which sold to Viacom in 2006 for $102 million.

Ruba features integration with Twitter and Facebook Connect, allowing users to broadcast where they are going and to ask friends for their input.

Google has been reportedly making a significant move to enter the online travel business, integrating hotel links into Google Maps and listing hotels with room rates.

An announcement from the Ruba team confirmed that they were due to move into Google headquarters today.

It continues: “We are totally excited to be joining such an amazing company.

“For the past 15 months, we’ve worked to create a unique and fun visual travel site and community focused on guides, photos, maps, and interactive tour listings to improve the online travel research experience.”