It might be a little late for a Memorial Day getaway, but Google has begun adding flight schedules to its search results.
How useful is this? Without pricing information, the number of flights leaving from a particular airport might not be all that informative. And that's what the new results offer: the number of flights leaving from a given airport, the departure times and duration, what days of the week they fly out, and the carrier.
Currently, Google appears to have restricted the routes to and from a given airport to just nonstop routes, so if you want to fly from San Francisco to Minneapolis and don't mind a layover to save you a few dollars (from Southwest, for example) the Google results won't immediately indicate the possibility.
Users won't be able to get pricing information until, presumably, the company begins integrating the flight information it included with the acquisition of ITA Software, which was approved last month.
Google announced plans to acquire Boston-based ITA in July 2010. The purchase will help Google produce new flight search tools intended to simplify the process of searching for flights, comparing options, and buying tickets, the company said at the time. Currently, that function is served via Web sites like Kayak.com, which allows users to compare flight information and prices across various airlines.
"With the close of our ITA acquisition last month, we're eager to begin developing new flight search tools to make it easier for you to plan a trip," Peter Wedum, a software engineer for Google, wrote in a blog post. "While this flight schedule feature does not currently use ITA's search technology, this is just a small step towards making richer travel information easier to find, and we hope to make finding flights online feel so easy, it'll feel like... well, a vacation!"
No comments:
Post a Comment