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Google Flight Search

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Re: Google Flight Search

#71

Post by marquis »

hugh3 wrote: post #9

That really is good. Hipmunk is still better if you know what days you want to fly, but this is great if you haven't yet decided precisely when, or precisely where, you want to go. A pity it only works within the US so far, but I'm sure they'll add international destinations eventually. Also a shame that Southwest still won't cooperate with any of these guys. I guess it's a rational decision on their part: be cheapes…

Yes, the first site that has JetBlue and SouthWest comparisons with the major airlines will have my traffic. I usually prefer to travel on price when it's not business so I love how Google has made this clear - that's my core problem with Hipmunk and I'm not sure why they don't just tell you the cheapest days to fly, like Kayak at least tries to. I also like how http://skyscanner.com does it.

Re: Google Flight Search

#72

Post by rhygar »

alec wrote: post #59
rhygar wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It looks like it was built quickly. Why is there a giant search bar at the top of the screen? I came here to look for flights, not to search the web. Why is there a giant map at the top of the screen? I already know where I want to go. I don't need to look at a map to decide which destination I want. This part seems like more of a tech demo than anything. The whole UI looks like it was designed by an engineer. For ex…

To see how the map is useful, put in an origin and then play with the price limit.

It's a cool in a geeky sense that destinations drop off the map when I click back and forth. How does this solve my problem as a customer though? I know I need to get from A to B. How does the map help me choose which flight from which carrier on what day?

Re: Google Flight Search

#73

Post by jbail »

noduerme wrote: post #67
stingraycharles wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Interesting. That makes me wonder: would that really be the optimal approach? Google is able to return search results for previously unsearched queries nearly instantaneously too, so I'm wondering whether it's really a cache that's serving those queries. Would some sort of graph-based index be possible in this situation?

Lol. If I were Google, I'd probably have bought all the tickets in advance ;) Thing that gets me is, do they really send their employees SFO to LA on United?! Southwest's like a third the price... And why isn't SW listed, anyway? Did Herb take issue with something here?

Probably for the same reason you don't see Southwest flights on any travel website. Southwest doesn't allow their flights to be booked outside of their website.

Re: Google Flight Search

#74

Post by jey »

breck wrote: post #62
bradleyland wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Let's be honest. Google wants us to use their services because the better they understand us, the better they can advertise to us. That's the profit model at Google. I don't begrudge them for it either. You've got to turn a profit if you want to keep the lights on. I don't mean any offense, but the "Don't be evil" mantra is growing a bit tired. Evil is a strong word, and "not being evil" is a pretty low bar, IMO.

I strongly disagree. Google wants us to use its services because at its core is a bunch of engineers that simply want to make the world better.

What Google "wants" as an entity is different from what the individual component humans want.

(i.e. the agent 'Google' is distinct from the agents that it is composed of)

Re: Google Flight Search

#75

Post by DevX101 »

If your startup is involved with search aimed at the consumer market, watch out...Google is coming.

In a few weeks/months Google will be featuring this search result when you type "nyc to sfo" and take a big bite out of orbitz, kayak, and whoever's lunch that's in this space.

EDIT: The counterargument to this, is that orbitz, kayak, and friends are some of the heaviest purchasers of PPC ads. So Google be at risk of cannibalizing if they push this too hard.

Re: Google Flight Search

#76

Post by emehrkay »

Interface was confusing at first: you click the "x from $xxx" then you choose a return flight by clicking the sub="x from $xxx" with the time you'd like to return. Then you can book.

This is cool though

Re: Google Flight Search

#77

Post by chintan »

kiwidrew wrote: post #46

It’s rather powerful: as long as the origin airport is one of those shown on the map, and the destination airport is reachable via a domestic flight on one of the major airlines (AA, AS, B6, CO, DL, F9, UA, US), the search results come back instantaneously. Multiple origins and destinations (up to five of each) are supported as well: http://www.google.com/flights/#search;f=LAX,SFO,SEA,LAS,DEN;... And the results stil…

Seems they are only pre-computing for next month or so..

http://www.google.com/flights/#search;f=EWR,JFK,LGA;t=ORD;d=...

gives: Your search – New York to Chicago – did not match any results.

versus

http://www.kayak.com/#flights/NYC-ORD/2011-10-01/2011-11-01

1347 of 1347 roundtrips shown

Re: Google Flight Search

#78

Post by alohahacker »

cletus wrote: post #20

Internally, this has been around for a little while (disclaimer: I work for Google but not on anything related to this). What continues to impress me about Google is: 1. Just how quickly this was built (really, it was quick); and 2. Google wants you to use our services because they're compelling not because we don't give you any other choice (ie "Don't be evil"). Sure there are limits to what it currently does but I…

is there a API or a way to affiliate model to integrate this on our own sites? i could totally use this on my travel related sites/apps :)

Re: Google Flight Search

#79

Post by vtail »

yanw wrote: post #57
bradleyland wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Let's be honest. Google wants us to use their services because the better they understand us, the better they can advertise to us. That's the profit model at Google. I don't begrudge them for it either. You've got to turn a profit if you want to keep the lights on. I don't mean any offense, but the "Don't be evil" mantra is growing a bit tired. Evil is a strong word, and "not being evil" is a pretty low bar, IMO.

They specify what they mean by "evil": http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/googevil

Here is the direct link: http://www.google.com/about/corporate/company/tenthings.html

Re: Google Flight Search

#80

Post by kiwidrew »

stingraycharles wrote: post #60
kiwidrew wrote: post #46

It’s rather powerful: as long as the origin airport is one of those shown on the map, and the destination airport is reachable via a domestic flight on one of the major airlines (AA, AS, B6, CO, DL, F9, UA, US), the search results come back instantaneously. Multiple origins and destinations (up to five of each) are supported as well: http://www.google.com/flights/#search;f=LAX,SFO,SEA,LAS,DEN;... And the results stil…

Interesting. That makes me wonder: would that really be the optimal approach? Google is able to return search results for previously unsearched queries nearly instantaneously too, so I'm wondering whether it's really a cache that's serving those queries. Would some sort of graph-based index be possible in this situation?

Yes, using a shortest path tree [1], it is possible to efficiently (for some definition of "efficient") calculate the best path from a single origin node to all destination nodes in the graph. Dijkstra's algorithm is the standard implementation, but is not very amenable to parallel processing.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, Google has a framework called Pregel [2] which does parallel graph processing. Their research paper outlines how it can be used to calculate a single-source shortest path tree (in section 5.2) in reasonable time.

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shortest_path_tree

[2] http://www-bd.lip6.fr/ens/grbd2011/extra/SIGMOD10_pregel.pdf

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