I wonder if the Common Lisp codebase will survive the acquisition?
Nah, I think they'll rewrite it in C++. No, really.
Google acquires ITA Software
21–30 of 81 posts
Re: Google acquires ITA Software
#22How cool would it be if you could type "flights to somewhere sunny for under $500 in May" How cool would it be to receive suggestions for flights in May with clusters in my social graph as destinations?
To your first question, you should take a look at http://adioso.com/ (YC W09) by http://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=tomhoward
Has been covered a few times on HN already e.g. http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1651737
Re: Google acquires ITA Software
#23How cool would it be if you could type "flights to somewhere sunny for under $500 in May" How cool would it be to receive suggestions for flights in May with clusters in my social graph as destinations?
To your first question, you should take a look at http://adioso.com/ (YC W09) by http://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=tomhoward Has been covered a few times on HN already e.g. http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1651737
The first question is not mine, but a quote from the article. But I never knew of Adioso and it seems quite neat! So thanks :)
Re: Google acquires ITA Software
#24[deleted]
Re: Google acquires ITA Software
#25Does anyone know what makes ITA so special? Why don't any of the big airlines have APIs that Hipmunk, Kayak, Orbitz, etc. can use directly? (Do any of them?) Seems odd that everyone should have to rely on this one company for the data, when it should be originating from the airlines.
Re: Google acquires ITA Software
#26I'm sort of surprised this went through since their advantage in search mixed with the power ITA has within their field leads to very powerful mix that could put competitors at a serious disadvantage. Maybe the DoJ saw something I did not to make it less of a problem, but even as a google fan it's... ungh. I don't like this going through.
The key was Google's agreement to continue licensing QPX on “fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory terms”. According to the linked Justice Department press release, they're also required to continue development of the publicly-available version of QPX.
Very interesting. Be very curious to see if it is enforced (although I think google is more prone to not risk it since they are under so much scrutiny if nothing else).
Re: Google acquires ITA Software
#27Does anyone know what makes ITA so special? Why don't any of the big airlines have APIs that Hipmunk, Kayak, Orbitz, etc. can use directly? (Do any of them?) Seems odd that everyone should have to rely on this one company for the data, when it should be originating from the airlines.
ITA is special not because of the data but because of what it does with the data. The others haven't been able to reproduce that. Think of it as the Google of airline data.
Re: Google acquires ITA Software
#28Does anyone know what makes ITA so special? Why don't any of the big airlines have APIs that Hipmunk, Kayak, Orbitz, etc. can use directly? (Do any of them?) Seems odd that everyone should have to rely on this one company for the data, when it should be originating from the airlines.
Orbitz and Kayak both use them, check the wikipedia page on them for more info in that area[1]. ITA's real claim to fame, at least in communities like HN, is that they're one of the largest Common Lisp shops still around. Also my experience interacting with their employees has been that they're an exceedingly smart and talent bunch of people. Additionally, and especially if you lived in the Boston/Cambridge area, they're pretty well known for there rather challenging interview puzzles which used to be plastered all over the T [2]
Re: Google acquires ITA Software
#29Does anyone know what makes ITA so special? Why don't any of the big airlines have APIs that Hipmunk, Kayak, Orbitz, etc. can use directly? (Do any of them?) Seems odd that everyone should have to rely on this one company for the data, when it should be originating from the airlines.
The data is available (not cheaply) from an company called ATPCO, which is owned by the airlines. The airlines publish fares and rules through ATPCO, and ITA, SABRE, and many others fetch the data and run the computations.
The computations are the hard part.
Re: Google acquires ITA Software
#30Does anyone know what makes ITA so special? Why don't any of the big airlines have APIs that Hipmunk, Kayak, Orbitz, etc. can use directly? (Do any of them?) Seems odd that everyone should have to rely on this one company for the data, when it should be originating from the airlines.
The data is available (not cheaply) from an company called ATPCO, which is owned by the airlines. The airlines publish fares and rules through ATPCO, and ITA, SABRE, and many others fetch the data and run the computations. The computations are the hard part.
So if Hipmunk, Kayak, or whoever wanted to remove their dependency from ITA (by doing more computational stuff themselves), what's the best place for them to get their data?