Google Flight Search Service

As if Google didn’t already have their hand in everything that we use already, they recently unveiled a flight search service. They hope join other airfare-shopping services like Kayak, Travelocity, and Expedia. This service comes to us following their July 2010 purchase of ITA Software. Before Google bought it, ITA Software sold flight information to a number of travel sites like Kayak, Orbitz and Hotwire. Since this service was vital to those companies’ operation there was some scrutiny over the deal by the Justice Department. In the end Google was required to make assurances that it wouldn’t keep ITA’s best parts for its own uses.

So what make the upstart Google flight service so different from other, more established services? Well for starters speed, which can be a big deal when doing repetitive searches and adjustments. Another plus is its simpler layout. The default view you get when you search for a flight all the outbound flights and after you select one you then see the return flights that are available with that outbound ticket.

Now I wouldn’t recommend you get rid of your current flight search service just yet. This Google service is still young and suffers from providing less comprehensive results. Playing around with their graphic filter is cool and everything, but it doesn’t help you if there’s a better and earlier flight you might want and you’re not seeing it. So in the meantime try it out and compare it to your usual service.

by Le-Andris Daniel