

Google Flight Search means little for Adioso & Hipmunk - wakeless
http://tomhoward.co/why-googles-move-into-flight-search-means-lit

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nhangen
Cool post, and I agree. My question is probably not geared toward you, but the
audience:

Why can't we just celebrate the fact that Google built something new instead
of beat it to death with criticisms of how it isn't perfect or a game changer,
etc?

I like new tech and new products to play with, whether they come from YC,
Google, or the hacker down the street.

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dhackner
I think we are all naturally a bit defensive when the fear of a great
competitor leaping out from the shadows is always there - especially for
travel startups where something like the Google-ITA deal that has been in the
works for so long. The message I got from his article actually somewhat agrees
with the question you posed: there can be sufficient room for both of them in
the space and as a community we should resist being alarmist about others
encroaching on what we do; in fact it can be a really good thing.

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joshfraser
I'm rooting for you guys over Google, but I view speed as the #1 feature and I
don't see anyway you can compete on that front right now with Google owning
ITA.

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intractable
Yes. It's the Italian Restaurant argument all over again.

There's room in town for more than one, and everybody you ask will have their
own favourite.

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0x12
What this does mean is that you should always look carefully at where you get
your traffic and your hosting. You don't want to be dependent on a big
competitor for either of those.

All it takes is one tweak of an algorithm or a prolonged outage to put you out
of business.

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jcampbell1
The thing to fear is Google changing the SERPs in their favor. Google maps
owns the local space because all local searches lead to Google maps. In this
case, unlike local, I don't think there are many searches for Google to hijack
(I think they call it "OneBox"). I agree that it means little other than
Google is going to monopolize the travel press for a few weeks.

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Hisoka
It means little to Hipmunk because they don't exactly have huge traction
yet... They're more of a threat to Expedia or Orbitz. Hipmunk isn't even
mainstream.

