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ITA

Travelers’ Hotel Choices: No Choice At All

2014-05-12 by Phil Butler

When Google acquired ITA flight software a couple of years back, a group of competitors went ballistic warning of unfair practices by the Internet search and ad giant. Most people back then blew off what FairSearch was contending, this author included. As it turns out, a half dozen court cases won and a lot of water under the hotel search bridge, and potential guests really have no choice at all. Google has rigged the hotel booking game into an ad recommendation one.

Tags: BIng, Bing travel, booking hotels, Expedia, FairSearch, Google, Google hotel finder, hotels, ITA, TripAdvisor

Big OTAs and Big Hotels in Price Fixing Lawsuit

2012-08-22 by Phil Butler

Class action versus OTAs

A federal lawsuit naming the likes of Expedia, Orbitz, Booking.com, Travelocity, Trump International Hotels Management, Intercontinental, Kimpton, Sabre Holdings, Priceline, Marriott, Starwood, and Hilton alleges the companies conspired to fix hotel room prices. According to the news from Reuters, the suit claims the travel giants did so in an effort to fend off competition from smaller online retailers.

Tags: Booking.com, buuteeq, Expedia, FairSearch, Global Hotel Exhange, Google, Google Travel, Hilton, hotels, InterContinental, ITA, Kimpton, Marriott, online travel, Orbitz, OTA's, price fixing, Priceline, rate parity, room prices, Sabre holdings, Starwood, Travelocity, treovi, Trump International Hotels Management

Google Hotel Finder Adds “Search by Travel Time”

2012-01-23 by Aleksandr Shatskih

google hotel finder

Google Hotel Finder has finally rolled out some of its much-anticipated ‘innovation’, in the form of a new search parameter than allows us to search for hotels by travel time from key attractions and destinations

Tags: filter hotels by travel time, Google, Google hotel finder, Google Maps, Google Travel, hotel finder, hotels, Hotels by Travel Time, ITA, online hotels, Search by Travel Time, search hotels by travel time, travel time

Google Restaurant Finder? Well, Not Quite Yet

2011-09-08 by Phil Butler

Zagat now belongs to Google

Google’s head of Local, Maps and Location Services, Marissa Mayer, just announced the acquisition of Zagat, publisher of worldwide restaurant guides, on the Google blog. Zagat is the entity that produces some of the world’s best printable restaurant guides, and accordingly, the platform will now help refine Google tools like Maps, Places, and Hotspot too, Google’s growing recommendation engine.

Tags: Dealmap, G+, Giza Ventures, Google acquisitions, Google blog, Google Hotspot, Google Maps, Google Places, Google Travel, ITA, Marissa Mayer, Motorola, Stay, Stay.com, travel sites, Yahoo! Local, Zagat

Google Is NOT Taking Over Travel With Hotel Finder

2011-07-30 by Phil Butler

Google Hotel Finder

Okay, just because Google bought ITA, just because flight search stuff got put onto the search page, just because they have 50 billion reasons to take over online travel, does not mean Sergey Brin, Larry Page, Eric Schmidt, and the rest at Google will. AND, launching the unbelievably fast Google Hotel Finder aspect for online travel? Nah, Google will never take over the multi-billion dollar online travel scene. Yeah! They will.

Tags: Charleston, Charleston hotels, Charleston Place, Eric Schmidt, Expedia, Google, Google developments, Google Travel, hotel booking, hotel finder, hotels, ITA, Kayak, Larry Page, Sergey Brin, World hotels

Will Google Launch Their ITA Travel Weapon?

2011-07-06 by Phil Butler

Google can torpedo travel

According to TechCrunch’s reliable network of source, Google may well roll out an integrated ITA search platform within days. A report by TC’s Leena Rao 16 hours ago suggests Google’s recent acquisition may in fact be the forboding nightmare Microsoft, Expedia, and others feared.

Tags: Expedia, Fairlogix, fare booking, Google, Google Travel, ITA, ITA fare software, Kayak, Microsoft, online travel, Sabre, TechCrunch, ticket sales, tickets, travel wars

Orbitz Stock Into Orbit With American Airlines Verdict

2011-06-03 by Phil Butler

Google Air

For all those investors who emailed to ask me if the American Airlines slash Orbitz fight would be a game changer, the news today of skyrocketing Orbitz stock prices is as good an answer as any. Orbitz Worldwide Inc. bounced shares upward on an Illinois court reversal of their case against American Airlines. The court ordered American to resume selling flights via the online travel agency.

Tags: AA flights, American Airlines, American flights, flights, Google, Google Travel, Google trial, ITA, ITA software, Online travel wars, Orbitz, Orbitz travel, OTA's, travel deals

US Government Approves Google-ITA Deal

2011-04-11 by Aleksandr Shatskih

US Department of Justice

The Department of Justice has approved a $700 million deal that will see Google acquire ITA Software, a travel technology company.  The DoJ released a detailed ruling outlining the approval, along with some restrictions. As part of the deal, Google must license QPX software from ITA to airfare websites under “commercially reasonable terms”, continue to […]

Tags: air fares, airfare websites, BIng, Department of Justice, DoJ, Google, InstaSearch, ITA, QPX software, travel search engine, U.S.

Bing-Kayak: Travel Search or Dumb Meets Dumber?

2011-03-06 by Phil Butler

Barney Pell up the Amazon in 2008

The still raging war for online travel supremacy continues with news from Microsoft and Kayak. The pending sale of ITA to Google has spurred some fairly ridiculous allegiances and deals, not the least of which is the latest Bing “slash” Kayak pairing. Let’s face it, Microsoft has already spent two king’s ransoms trying to beat Google, and now this?

Tags: Barney Pell, Bill Gates, BIng, Bing travel, Google, Google Travel, ITA, ITA software, Kayak, Microsoft, online travel, OTA, Powermouse, search engines, travel conversions, travel search, travel wars

Online Travel Warfare To End Soon

2011-02-19 by Phil Butler

Google evil versus collective evil

The war in online travel over basically who gets what & when continues this week with Delta Airlines snatching seats from Rick Seaney’s FareCompare, American Airlines going hog wild trying to engage on their own, and Google outlining (see Matt Cutts video below) how they can manually crucify websites for SPAM. Meanwhile travelers just want some price break justice.

Tags: air fares, American Airlines, BIng, Expedia, FaceCompare, Google, Google algorithms, ITA, Kayak, Matt Cutts, Microsoft, MS Travel, online bookings, Orbitz, Rick Seaney, social web, SPAM, Tim O'Reilly, TripAdvisor, Web 2.0, web transparency

Cease Fire Called In Online Travel Wars

2011-02-01 by Phil Butler

Google Hotpot

The ceasefire between American Airlines and GDS giant Sabre signals an “all quiet” moment on the front lines of the online travel wars we have been covering. The announcement that the two companies would attempt to resolve their differences out of court, at least until June 1st, calmed the churning business cauldron for online travel for some.

Tags: American Airlines, BIng, Bing travel, Business Travel Coalition, Everything PR News, FairSearch, GDS, Google, Google Android, Google Places, Google Travel, Google Webmaster Guidlines, Hotpot, ITA, Justice Department, Kevin P. Mitchell, Microsoft, online travel, Sabre, SPAM filter, Tavis Hampton, travel supremecy

A Savory Set of Travel Startups: Book One

2011-01-18 by Phil Butler

VoyagePriv

Some really great online travel sites never even get mentioned. What with all the stories about American Airlines, Google, Expedia, Orbitz, Microsoft, even Bing, how is the consumer ever to know who the best is. What we often see is not innovation or anything approaching the best, it’s marketing and big business.

Tags: Aeroplan, Amargo, American Airlines, Central America, ColorLine, Europe deals, Europe travel, Globogo, Google, GreatNextPlace, Groupon, ITA, OpenJaw, OTA's, Sabre Expedia, South America, travel deals, travel portals, travel startups, VoyavePrive, Wokita

Google’s Probability of Online Travel Success

2011-01-15 by Phil Butler

Eric Schmidt of Google

American Airlines and ITA penned a deal the other day which AA claims had nothing to do with Google’s acquisition of ITA technology. But the suggestion still remains as to what exactly Google is doing to fend off its opponents in the so called “Online Travel War.” Is Google silently orchestrating the downfall of Expedia and the others of FairSearch? Well, probably not anything so diabolical, but winning the ITA acquisition with underlying business relationships? This is not only possible, but probable.

Tags: American Airlines, AMR Corp, AMR holdings, antitrust, Dara Khosrowshahi, Direct Connect, Doug Cameron, Editorial, Eric Schmidt, Expedia, FairSearch, Gerard Arpey, Google Travel, ITA, Japan Airlines, Justice Department, Microsoft, Monte Ford, Orbitz, OTA, Sabre, Tnooz, Tom Horton

Getting There and Carried Away Airlines

2011-01-05 by Phil Butler

The future of air travel

The recent war between online travel agents and major airlines heats up still more. But for the travel consumer, how will all this soap opera posturing effect prices and value? The answer is fairly simple, prices will go up, and services will go down. The trend to cut everything from jet fuel to aspirin is in place, and only a paradigm shift can alter that. Comparison pricing is the only consumer weapon for value. Expedia, Google, American Airlines, the customer, what is best for business only the customer can say.

Tags: air fares, air travel, American Airlines, business travel, Expedia, fare wars, Getting There, Google, Google ITA, ITA, Jet Blue, Joe Brancatelli, Orbitz, OTA's, Portfolio.com, price war, Southwest

Gunfight At the Google Travel Corral

2010-12-05 by Phil Butler

Google holds all the cards

Recent developments in online travel highlight the immense power the Internet has on traditional structures. Google’s ITA software deal is now the subject or power strokes in Washington. As Microsoft, Kayak, and Sabre vie for Senatorial support, Obama’s Attorney General select focus scrutiny on the deal.

Tags: Anti-trust, BIng, Christine A. Varney, Google, ITA, Justice Department, Kayak, Microsoft, President Obama, Sabre, Senator Herb Kohl

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