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Google Flight Search

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Re: Google Flight Search

#161

Post by breck »

throwaway32 wrote: post #114
breck wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

the first motivation of any for profit corporation, especially one as large and successful as Google, is profit. That is their entire reason for existence, don't fool yourself into believing otherwise.

Profit is a large motivation, for sure. There are some folks at Google (I'm guessing particularly on the business side), who probably have that as their primary motivation.

I think the core of Google is Larry, Sergey, Urs, Craig, and the other dozens of engineers I've read about (never met), and from their actions and words over a course of a decade, I think they've proved that a huge motivator for them all is to simple make the world better.

They've all got lots of money. I think the long term evidence shows that they care about doing good. I think their motivation for earning money is to expand their own ability to do good.

If someone disagrees, instead of responding with more argument I'd ask you to make a table and list everything Google done has done in one column and whether or not it seems "good" or "evil" in another. Then we could debate further.

Re: Google Flight Search

#162

Post by smackfu »

yesbabyyes wrote: post #129
alec wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

This is all I've wanted from a flight search product since forever. It will be awesome when it's more international!

http://kayak.com/buzz has had this forever.

Re: Google Flight Search

#163

Post by smackfu »

alec wrote: post #101
chintan wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

It's odd that the limits are just in the data it seems, not in actual limit checks. So when you hit a limit, it's indistinguishable from there being no available flights... which seems very bad for UX.

Re: Google Flight Search

#165

Post by kongqiu »

JoshTriplett wrote: post #93

Not bad, but hipmunk's visualization seems far far better than Google's tables. The graphical representation of the flight path seems nice, as does the highlighting of cities involved, but that doesn't actually give me information I need to make a decision; Hipmunk's time-oriented chart of departures, arrivals, and layovers tells me exactly what I need to know to book a flight.

Exactly. This would intimidate my aunt; Hipmunk would amaze her.

Re: Google Flight Search

#166

Post by sbochins »

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.

I saw a documentary about advertising agencies. They interviewed someone working at the marketing division of nike. She said her job was to get people to play sports. That of course is not true. Her job is to get people to buy shoes. I think your comment is misguided as well. Google really just wants people to click on ads.

Re: Google Flight Search

#168

Post by cameronh90 »

throwaway32 wrote: post #114
breck wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

the first motivation of any for profit corporation, especially one as large and successful as Google, is profit. That is their entire reason for existence, don't fool yourself into believing otherwise.

True, but maybe they think the best way to achieve profit in the long term is by building cool things and not being evil.

Re: Google Flight Search

#169

Post by DevX101 »

John212 wrote: post #160
DevX101 wrote: post #75

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 c…

> If your startup is involved with search aimed at the consumer market, watch out...Google is coming. Possibly... However sites like hipmunk will be used as a comparison in so many press articles and blog posts when google starts pushing this. Many start ups have won against google. Google Notepad & Evernote, Google Wave & Twitter, Google Ride Finder & Uber etc... .. but I still wouldn't want to be in this space righ…

Those are all ancillary to google's core product: search.

Re: Google Flight Search

#170

Post by nlh »

stevoski wrote: post #164

I try to get a flight from Frankfurt - the 9th busiest airport in the world. - and I get "Unavailable". Post this again when I can actually use it.

When you search for a destination airport outside of the US, you get a very clear message:

"Sorry, locations outside the U.S. are currently not supported."

They're taking the release-early-iterate-often approach to this new service, which means that they're not going to make everyone happy immediately.

Rather than dismiss this new service just because it doesn't fit your specific use case right now, think about this from a different (i.e. hacker) perspective -- this is a cool new service that will obviously become even cooler as it gets more advanced.

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