This may not be the place or time to ask this but here goes anyway:
How do the travel indexing sites like Kayak get their data? Surely they don't index or consume APIs from the travel companies individually?
Priceline.com acquires Kayak for $1.8B
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Re: Priceline.com acquires Kayak for $1.8B
#52This may not be the place or time to ask this but here goes anyway: How do the travel indexing sites like Kayak get their data? Surely they don't index or consume APIs from the travel companies individually?
A company called ITA, now owned by Google.
http://www.fastcompany.com/1666092/google-acquires-airline-d...
Re: Priceline.com acquires Kayak for $1.8B
#53Kayak is great (was?) but Hipmunk is more than up to the task of filling the void if Priceline ruin Kayak. Congrats to the Kayak folks I guess, when they got into the industry they really raised the bar. Before Kayak I remember having to use Expedia and Orbitz and just having to accept their crappy UI because there simply were no alternatives.
I was getting ready to say almost the exact same thing -- thank heavens that Hipmunk came when it did, or that acquisition (if soured) would have left a very large hole in my travel-making tools.
I don't particularly like Kayak, but as a matter of effectiveness, there's no doubt that it was pretty much king of the hill for a good long while. Since Hipmunk's inception though, it has definitely been the 'go-to' place for travel-planning, and beats the nearest competition (that I've used) by a mile.
I would also venture to say that this was perhaps a timely exit for Kayak, as the more and more traction Hipmunk sees, the less off the Kayak founders would have been for an exit.
Re: Priceline.com acquires Kayak for $1.8B
#54Earlier quoted context omitted.
I like it, I've been looking for something like this. Some features (dreaded feature creep!) I'd love: 1. Map interface with little lines from my home base airport to the possible destinations - It's just fun to see. 2. Sliders to increase/decrease budget - Dynamically adding/removing routes as I change the $$ limit. Maybe these would only take another weekend to add?
jngreenlee: I was actually thinking about the map yesterday, but couldn't think about a good way to visualize so it doesn't look like another google maps mashup with pins. Your idea with air routes is interesting, hope you don't mind if I just go ahead and borrow them? :)
Also note that the distance to travel is proportional to the amount of time to get there. Perhaps you can do a shaded contour showing travel time?
(Spending 8 hours on a plane is essentially a whole day gone.)
Re: Priceline.com acquires Kayak for $1.8B
#55Kayak and Hipmunk get a lot of praise for their UI but if you want to use a hacker interface for finding flights, http://matrix.itasoftware.com/ is the way to go.
It's not as pretty, but is incredibly feature-rich, not limited to the US and regularly finds me prices that are significantly cheaper than anyone else.
Re: Priceline.com acquires Kayak for $1.8B
#56This may not be the place or time to ask this but here goes anyway: How do the travel indexing sites like Kayak get their data? Surely they don't index or consume APIs from the travel companies individually?
[deleted]
Re: Priceline.com acquires Kayak for $1.8B
#57Fun fact: Both are located in Norwalk, CT., about a 5-10 minute ride from each other. Priceline is located almost on the Darien border and Kayak is nestled in South Norwalk (SoNo). I gotta believe this proximity lead to board member and executive coziness.
I can't escape the feeling that that fun fact is why stories like these have hit the wires:
http://zlkdocs.com/KYAK-Info-Request-Form-463
To save you from reading that document, a law firm has decided to 'investigate' whether Kayak's board "breached their fiduciary duties to stockholders by failing to adequately shop the Company before entering into this transaction and whether priceline.com Incorporated is underpaying for Kayak shares, thus unlawfully harming Kayak stockholders."
Another firm has announced it is conducting another investigation (http://finance.yahoo.com/news/block-leviton-llp-investigates...). Not sure if it relates to whether or not Kayak adequately shopped around the company....
Re: Priceline.com acquires Kayak for $1.8B
#58Earlier quoted context omitted.
jngreenlee: I was actually thinking about the map yesterday, but couldn't think about a good way to visualize so it doesn't look like another google maps mashup with pins. Your idea with air routes is interesting, hope you don't mind if I just go ahead and borrow them? :)
Also note that the distance to travel is proportional to the amount of time to get there. Perhaps you can do a shaded contour showing travel time? (Spending 8 hours on a plane is essentially a whole day gone.)
That's a very good point, thank you.
Re: Priceline.com acquires Kayak for $1.8B
#59Kayak and Hipmunk get a lot of praise for their UI but if you want to use a hacker interface for finding flights, http://matrix.itasoftware.com/ is the way to go. It's not as pretty, but is incredibly feature-rich, not limited to the US and regularly finds me prices that are significantly cheaper than anyone else.
Have you tried out Google Flights? I've been told it's based on this same technology, and has a much better UI.
And be sure to click around. It has some interesting tools, like prices for flights to your destination flown out of nearby airports.
Re: Priceline.com acquires Kayak for $1.8B
#60Kayak is great (was?) but Hipmunk is more than up to the task of filling the void if Priceline ruin Kayak. Congrats to the Kayak folks I guess, when they got into the industry they really raised the bar. Before Kayak I remember having to use Expedia and Orbitz and just having to accept their crappy UI because there simply were no alternatives.
Hopefully Priceline will learn some improvements from Kayak and not try to force changes the other direction. Kayak has a great UI overall, but the explore interface is pure awesome: http://www.kayak.com/explore/
Visually that kind of interface is very appealing, but fares may be misleading... once you start the booking process, you will end up with completely different numbers. Typically, a featured "as low as $" air fare is a red eye, 8 hour connection time etc. I was going to output specials myself too, but then commented them out - as they hardly ever apply.
That being said, Kayak does have a great UI, and their iOS apps are eye candy.