Google Flight Search • Hacker News Board

Re: Google Flight Search

#101

Post by alec » Tue, Sep 13, 2011, 7:55 PM UTC

chintan wrote: post #77

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

Trip length duration is currently limited to 14 days.

Re: Google Flight Search

#102

Post by revorad » Tue, Sep 13, 2011, 7:56 PM UTC

goldfish wrote: post #91

toot wrote: post #44

It's quite scary that a company like Google can come along and shit in a startup's cereal practically overnight. I know we were all rooting for The 'Munk, but it seems that Google's use of Price x Duration matrix effectively steals the thunder from Hipmunk's agony filter. I mean, it's not as if Google needs the affiliate revenue, and I bet the Hipmunk guys would have preferred it had Google decided to "organise the w…

No tears over here! We've known this was coming for almost a year—Google announced their ITA acquisition before we even launched. We've also been preparing some sweet responses :)

Attaboy! Still rooting for you guys. You should add gigaballs of steel to the mascot.

Re: Google Flight Search

#103

Post by Omnipresent » Tue, Sep 13, 2011, 7:58 PM UTC

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…

Its' tough for a company to keep impressing customers with everything that comes out of it. That is what google has been doing for a long time now. It really is impressive.

As a developer, I just HOPE that one day google takes a service like this and makes a long blog post out of it describing and bisecting every aspect of the app and how it was built. I'm tired of clicking 'view source' and finding nothing but minimized JS

Re: Google Flight Search

#104

Post by hugh3 » Tue, Sep 13, 2011, 8:02 PM UTC

goldfish wrote: post #90

marquis wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

We (Hipmunk) have Jetblue, and so does Kayak and Google. We also let you figure out the cheapest days to fly: just click "I'm flexible."

Good to hear.

You also have one killer competitive advantage: an adorable logo.

Re: Google Flight Search

#105

Post by imorsi214 » Tue, Sep 13, 2011, 8:03 PM UTC

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…

except that Hipmunk's interface is a clean clone of ITA's matrix search's gantt view (http://matrix.itasoftware.com/) - I'm sure it'll be a matter of time before that makes it into google's interface.

Re: Google Flight Search

#106

Post by hugh3 » Tue, Sep 13, 2011, 8:03 PM UTC

andrewtbham wrote: post #49

hugh3 wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What do you mean by "integrates it into their search results"? Hipmunk's killer feature is the ability to easily visualize the flight in terms of the time you leave, the time you arrive and the time spent at various intermediate locations. It becomes more useful when there are no nonstop flights. Google is taking a different approach with their UI, which is fine. In terms of whether I'd use google or hipmunk to searc…

by "integrate into their search results" i mean.. if you search google for "sfo lax" and it brins up this new Google Flight page with their organic results.

Ah, I see. Sorry, the ambiguous "it" made me think "it" was hipmunk. Somehow.

Re: Google Flight Search

#107

Post by littlegiantcap » Tue, Sep 13, 2011, 8:04 PM UTC

hugh3 wrote: post #19

littlegiantcap wrote: post #3

Interesting, I like the simple layout, but it would be nice to have a price comparison of a few days in each direction like some sites have (I'm thinking Virgin Atlantic) so you can save some money by leaving a day early or a day late. Overall though bravo.

Once you've done your search, click on the little calendar icon, and it gives you a lot of information about prices on other days.

Ah, missed it. Thanks.

Re: Google Flight Search

#108

Post by alec » Tue, Sep 13, 2011, 8:04 PM UTC

rhygar wrote: post #72

alec wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

If you leave the destination open and limit by price, you can answer questions like "Where can I go for $500"?

Re: Google Flight Search

#109

Post by tbrooks » Tue, Sep 13, 2011, 8:05 PM UTC

andrewtbham wrote: post #2

Bad news for hipmunk? Especially since google acquired ITA.

Hipmunk's key differentiator is design. It's a pain in the ass to book flights and hotels. Hipmunk removed that pain by making it fun.

Google's flight search doesn't look fun.

Re: Google Flight Search

#110

Post by jeffem » Tue, Sep 13, 2011, 8:10 PM UTC

They must be accessing prior flight search history in some way or they made a really lucky guess with their default selections.

I've recently searched for flights on Expedia and Southwest (I don't think I've visited anywhere else). Google already had those same dates and cities selected by default.