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Google Flight Search

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Re: Google Flight Search

#271

Post by sbochins »

sbochins wrote: post #166
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.

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.

I was responding to this:

"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 don't doubt that the people working at google want to make the world better and work on cool software. I don't think that is the primary motivation of google as a company.

Re: Google Flight Search

#272

Post by polshaw »

Djehngo wrote: post #243
andrenotgiant wrote: post #218

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exactly, it's simple economics: If Orbitz et al. get $5 per Airline ticket sold, they can only afford to pay Google up to $4.99 for the click. Google can take the $5 from the Airlines and laugh all the way to the bank.

The issue is that in order to do that google would have to only list flights from airlines that are willing to pay them $5. If the airline refuses to pay and google doesn't display their flights then their results are incomplete. The airlines will probably understand that google wants to be able to list their flights and will negotiate harder because of it.

This is a dangerous game however; the flip-side is that the airline has more potential profit to lose by not having google to sell their flights for them.

Re: Google Flight Search

#274

Post by abraham »

danssig wrote: post #259
abraham wrote: post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google is strongly guided by the agents that shepherd it.

People still believe in a benevolent google after the App Engine scandal? Let me ask you something; what would Google have to do before you finally believe they're just a publicly traded company?

The App Engine pricing issues are anything but a scandal.

Re: Google Flight Search

#275

Post by abraham »

vladd wrote: post #244
abraham wrote: post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google is strongly guided by the agents that shepherd it.

Are you aware that several Googlers resigned after a petition signed by 10% of the entire engineering workforce was ignored by management? See https://plus.google.com/100010618263697835406/posts/azTW8hvw... for details.

"It seems that the G+ team is currently overwhelmed with technical issues of the current system -- that, combined with Vic's attitude, means that nymwars is not going to be addressed anytime soon. If engineers can scrape together 20% time to implement possible solutions and manage to convince decision-makers to let them roll out changes, we might see something."

It sounds less like it was ignored and more like it isn't a priority for a resource stretched team.

Re: Google Flight Search

#276

Post by LokiSnake »

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."

I love your site. It easily has the best UI. I knew in the back of my mind that you have the "flexible" feature, as I've seen it before, but never thought about or even bothered to use it, because it just isn't visible enough. It may help to make it a link on the results page, and perhaps mention it on the loading screen as well.

Re: Google Flight Search

#277

Post by nazar »

icandoitbetter wrote: post #193
sbochins wrote: post #166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Yes, Google wants to make more money. No question about it. But why are you so eager to reject any other possible motivation just because profit-making is involved? There is satisfaction in making the world a better place; why wouldn't Sergey & Larry want to get that satisfaction?

Exactly! I can't agree more on that. I can get a job which will give me trise as much as I make now with my startup+freelance jobs. But that wouldnt give me satisfaction. I suppose even seeing how people react on what you're up to on scale that Google operates has to be cool.

Re: Google Flight Search

#278

Post by epicviking »

deong wrote: post #252
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…

The problem with Google is that they don't seem interested in doing the hard work to go from 90% of the way there to a full product. It's like that with nearly everything they do. Often, it shows up as a US-only policy (flight search currently fits that bill). Other times, it's just random things. There are no Apps accounts for Google+. There's no "Tablet Optimized" section of the Android Market outside the US (and o…

From playing around a bit, it seems like Kayak still has Google Flights beat on pricing by as much as 150 dollars. A quick comparison of a bunch of flights and I found that Kayak almost always had the lower price. I'm gonna have to agree with you on the 90% thing, I don't really see why Google would release something like this and not take pricing into consideration. I guess that will be fixed soon though.

Re: Google Flight Search

#279

Post by LokiSnake »

bonamy wrote: post #171
geuis wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well this is some interesting research. Out of my off-hand and roughly scientific research, my statement of "almost all" was quite off. I found that all of the major carrier websites I could remember off the top of my head did not employ the date-ahead practice. Delta - no US Airways - no Southwest - no Virgin America - no Continental - no I followed that by a Google search for "flight search" and checked the sites t…

I cannot vouch for the other sites, but at Skyscanner we looked at the aggregated search history (12 million users a month) to make a best guess at the default dates to set.Interestingly the defaults we use are different for the mobile platforms. (We use our own backend technology)

Can you provide a little more detail on this? What percentage of users actually use the defaults (for both start and end date), and how many change it anyways?

Have you thought about doing some A/B testing on providing a default and not?

Re: Google Flight Search

#280

Post by samstave »

bengl3rt wrote: post #211
samstave wrote: post #196

You know what would my make flights better (I travel a lot for work - but work out of my house and book a lot of my own travel) I want to be able to setup standard trips/itineraries and be able to single clik re-book them with simply a leave and return date. Further, I want the system to auto arrange for a cab/shuttle/uber to pick me up and take me to my destination. For example, I fly to LAX several times a month -…

May I ask what you do, and how I might get into doing it? I am craving a job with > 0 travel...

I am a healthcare consultant. I consult on new hospital builds and ensuring the organizations are prepared to get licensed and then move in.
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