Bing Beats Google To The Punch On Flight Prices

Microsoft’s Bing search engine upgraded its Bing Travel Price Predictors feature with an autosuggest capability for airline travel fares, a capability Google might love to offer if it succeeds in acquiring ITA Software.

Bing’s travel website, which sifts through more than a billion airfares a day to surface cheap airline tickets for traveling searchers, has added “Autosuggest Flight Prices”.

Predictive search

This feature displays flight prices, including Bing’s prediction of the best flight price over the next 90 days, directly in the search box without a user having to type the enter button. The idea, as it is for any autosuggest feature, is to save the consumer an extra step in the sometimes frustrating search process.

The Autosuggest Flight Prices tool also recognises where users are and instantaneously display the Price Predictor based on their location.

Google has mastered autosuggest capabilities for its search engine, even upping the search ante versus Bing by offering Google Instant predictive search technology last year.

Bing’s Travel update, then, may seem like a thorn in Google’s side. Bing’s Travel Price Predictors tool relies on airfare schedules and pricing collected from airlines by ITA Software.

It’s ITA that Google is trying to buy for $700 million (£430m), but the US Justice Department is severely scrutinising the deal because it believes it would potentially give Google too much control over the online travel market.

Antitrust scrutiny

Google and the DOJ are trying to hash out an agreement, which could include compulsory licensing that prohibits Google from shutting off access to the ITA firehose to online travel companies such as Expedia and Kayak.

If the two fail to reach an understanding, which could come any day now amid ongoing talks, the DOJ would sue Google to block the deal.

Whatever the case, Bing Travel currently offers the sort of travel search service Google would love to offer by acquiring ITA.