Flying in the face of Google Travel

Competitors join forces to prevent Google from 'owning' the skiesLast week, some of the biggest names in online travel came together to make a stand against Google's $700m deal to buy ITA, a US-based company that produces flight information software.Expedia, Kayak and Sabre Holdings (Travelocity) are among those to have formed the Fair Search coalition to voice their objections to the deal. They fear that if Google owns ITA, it will not only become unfairly dominant, it could also limit access to ITA's software, which is used to power the majority of online flight searches."We welcome competition, but we don't understand why Google can't license the software, instead of buying it," says Kayak's chief marketing office Robert Birge.Google ? which is now waiting to have its deal passed by regulators in the US ? has responded to critics by saying it has no plans to move into selling flights and that it will honour all deals with existing ITA clients.The company has also stated ? as ever ? that they are primarily motivated by simplifying consumer searches. So were you to type, for example, "London to New York flight" into the search bar, instead of getting a list of links to travel sites, you would get more tailored information, with prices and times showing up immediately.Some consumers ? frustrated with current flight-search technology ? welcome the deal. Influential travel writer Arthur Frommer is among them. "If the airfare search business was presently doing its job, I might want Google to be defeated. But the current situation is untenable. It needs Google to straighten things out," he wrote.Google spokesperson Adam Kovacevich points out that there are already alternatives to ITA on the market, adding that Expedia and Travelocity don't actually rely on ITA themselves.Google continually denies that it is trying to break into the travel market, but as travel generates some of the highest volumes of online queries, many industry insiders are convinced the corporation will soon take a more active role.Kevin May, editor of travel-tech website Tnooz.com, says the ITA deal is "just the tip of the iceberg" of what might be to come. "ITA has also been playing around with hotel search and Google has been playing with hotel prices on Google Maps," says May. "They are changing the way they want people to search for things. The days of typing in a keyword and getting 10 results on a blank sheet are over."At the end of October, it was revealed that Google Ventures ? the company's investment arm ? has also bought a stake in Home Away, a large and rapidly growing company that rents holiday homes.Last week, the FairSearch coalition stepped up its campaign with a video in which an animated stickman named Bob urges consumers to take a stand against all-powerful companies that are collecting reams of personal data. Seemingly without irony, it ends its pitch by asking supporters to click "like'" on the campaign's Facebook page.Travel websitesFlightsGoogleVicky Bakerguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

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