

Google Launches Flight Search - galois17
http://googlewatch.eweek.com/content/google_search/google_launches_flight_search_sans_ita_data.html

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zmmmmm
Wow, I got a totally unexpected feeling of joy of getting immediate, concise
results from a flight search instead of the usual drag of navigating through 3
- 4 screens and getting long waits, pestered with ads, special offers, etc. If
Google can link this to actual bookings then they are on to something huge,
especially if they tie it into their other services (think - book flight, have
it appear in your calendar with maps in the entry etc.). More or less like
TripIt but more integrated and convenient.

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masklinn
> Wow, I got a totally unexpected feeling of joy of getting immediate, concise
> results from a flight search instead of the usual drag of navigating through
> 3 - 4 screens and getting long waits, pestered with ads, special offers,
> etc.

Had you never tried hipmunk before this?

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pushingbits
There's also <http://www.skyscanner.net>, which does not seem to get much love
around here, even though it was doing flight search well before hipmunk even
got started.

It's especially good if you want to do an open-ended search, as in you know
where you are leaving from and which month you might want to leave, but you're
flexible as to where you want to go.

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vaksel
more warning for anyone in a lucrative space on the web...Google will
eventually come for you.

It happened to mortgage rates companies, it happened to flights, and
eventually given enough it'll happen to any service that acts as a
broker/affiliate for other companies.

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guelo
Warning to anyone in any lucrative market, you will have competition.

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vaksel
no this is different...with your competition you are more or less on a level
playing field. With Google, they get to always place their stuff before you.

which means on the back end much lower traffic for the companies, which in
turn drives down the rates you can charge for the leads.

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seabee
Search engine traffic isn't the only source of publicity. Google Flight Search
isn't going to be first in a search for 'hipmunk', nor anywhere on the first
page.

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fernandotakai
I still think that hipmunk (<http://www.hipmunk.com/>) does a better job.

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bigwally
Hipmunk only shows the flights that have tickets to sell through their
partners.

Google has a lot more in terms of schedules.

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kn0thing
Aye, mostly true. But Google doesn't tell you anything about whether the fares
are available at all, or what they would cost—it's possible a flight's sold
out or prohibitively expensive.

They also don't have mascot, or hotel search ;)

I'll leave it there.

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Vivtek
I'm not seeing flight information in my Google search results. Anybody else?

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die_sekte
Seems to work only with US to US flights. "LGA to ORD" works, "FRA to SIN" and
"HAM to TXL" don't.

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hugh3
Works for international flights with one end in the US. (SFO to LHR, SFO to
SYD I've tried...)

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die_sekte
Hm. JFK-FRA works, JFK-SIN doesn't. SFO-(AKL|SIN|BKK|BJS) don't, JFK-WAW
doesn't, DEN-MEX doesn't, JFK-YYZ doesn't. So, US-US, US-Western Europe, US-
Australia. Strange dataset.

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hugh3
Well it only has nonstop flights, so JFK-SIN shouldn't work (afaik no aircraft
has that range). Likewise SFO-SIN, SFO-BKK.

SFO-AKL has direct flights though. I know, I've done it. NZ8. Nice plane.

edit: Actually I checked and "sfo to akl" does in fact give me results.

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hugh3
And I'm just coming back to this thread because I learned something today.
There are no flights from Singapore to JFK, but there is one to Newark. It's
the longest scheduled air route in the world, at 18 hours and 40 minutes.

Oh, and it's in a 100-seat all-business-class A340-500. I'm guessing they
couldn't do it with a fully-laden economy section. Then again I'd hate to fly
19 hours nonstop in economy.

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codabrink
Yes, something like this is nice. I just wish someone else besides Google did
it. Google is way too big. I'd much rather have a majority of the internet
comprised of many small companies than several internet giants. It's much
healthier..

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iamdave
I suddenly have the feeling this is just opened the doors to something MASSIVE
in the travel startup niche.

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RK
Includes Southwest Airlines flights!

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tonfa
And low cost in Europe (e.g. Easyjet) which aren't usually aggregated in
flight search.

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rakkhi
Asked Marisa Mayer today: so when can I sort by price and buy direct via
google checkout? No reply to date. Anyone else know / speculate?

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clistctrl
I wish Amazon would do this as well. I want 1 click flights, and something
that almost all these booking sites lack... awesome customer service. These
are 2 things Amazon can do well.

