What the Google-ITA Deal Really Portends 77
Much of the discussion about Google's bid to buy ITA Software, including here, has been limited by the lack of understanding all around about how airline search and reservations actually work now, and what it is exactly that ITA Software does. Travel expert Edward Hasbrouck wrote a detailed 3-part piece on his blog explaining the back story, what ITA Software does, and what it means for travelers. "...because CRS/GDS [Computerized Reservation Systems or Global Distribution Systems] companies are generally invisible in their intermediary role (and currently all owned by groups of private equity investors, so they need not report publicly on their finances or operations), few analysts outside the travel tech industry know how to interpret the implications of Google's decision to invest $700 million in this sector. Frankly, I'm not at all sure Google itself understands what ITA Software does (and doesn't) do, and what they are getting for their money. ... What will this deal mean for travelers? The short answer is that it is likely to be a bad thing for travelers ... because it is likely to exacerbate the trend toward personalized and less transparent pricing of airline tickets (and other travel services) and the de facto disappearance of key consumer protection principles embodied in the definition of a common carrier and the requirement for a published tariff applicable equally to all would-be customers complying with the same rules."
IT reporting? (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:It's just a database... (Score:5, Interesting)
To be fair(?) this wasn't Bing/Microsoft's idea originally. As is so frequently the case it seems, a website called Farecast [wikipedia.org] came up with the idea of basically aggregating the aggregators (which isn't a big idea in itself) and using that information to predict future flight prices (which is, IMHO.) It was incredibly useful, and when Microsoft realized that they bought out the company and merged it into Bing. I used Farecast before the buyout and now it's the only thing i use Bing for, since as far as i'm aware no one else has implemented the idea. (If i'm mistaken about that then someone please inform me of the alternatives.) If this acquisition means Google is thinking about doing the same thing, then great!
Even google doesn't know what ITA does? Really? (Score:3, Interesting)
Conflict of Interesting? (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:It's just a database... (Score:3, Interesting)
Perhaps for you, but for me, I relied on it (it said prices would go down) and lost a great fare once (spent about 10% more overnight per ticket), and never trusted it again. An impressive looking technology (forecasting fare prices) sounds great until you attempt to rely on it. What did save me money was using farecast and kayak's daily email update. Kayak specifically mentions how many fares are left at that price.
Re:IT reporting? (Score:1, Interesting)
Unfortunately so. The Practical Nomad is an awesome book.
Re:It's just a database... (Score:3, Interesting)
I used Farecast before the buyout...
From your conclusions, I'm really having a hard time believing you. I also tried using Farecast from the time the 'Super Crunchers' book came out and before the time Microsoft purchased the company. And just like you, I was totally gung-ho about the concept and the startup company. And if someone had approached me just after reading the 'Super Crunchers' book, I would have easily invested everything I owned in that startup, I was so totally and utterly convinced by the arguments the author was making.
And by the way, I'm still convinced by his arguments, so don't take this as a complete opinion reversal. It's just that his choice of the Farecast example, as elegant and as perfect it looked on paper, didn't work for me at all in practice. The Farecast engine couldn't even get most of the current prices from the airlines it had listed on there. And as good as its prediction engine may have been, I will never know, but if the data coming in was only garbage-in to begin with, it doesn't matter how good the prediction engine is or was, the data coming out was most probably just garbage-out.
And for all I know, Microsoft may have solved that problem by taking it over (I haven't checked yet). To me at the time, it appeared that the airlines were deliberately obfuscating the data to the Farecast engine. So in that respect, Microsoft probably has a much better chance to get to that data. I can definitely see airlines blacklisting and messing with the bots or the scrapers of a small no-name start-up which is trying to circumvent their pricing schemes, but I think it would be a much harder decision to blacklist and mess around with the search bots from Microsoft, without getting yourself de-listed from Bing or Expedia at the same time, so in that respect, I'm much more hopeful that it works now under Microsoft (it's just that when I tried it, and I tried it several times, it really didn't work any of those times).