Yahoo! FareChase integrates and innovates
Yahoo! has upgraded their travel service, blending search and travel-specific features from across their netowrk.
Clearly stepping up its challenge to dedicated travel sites, Yahoo FareChase allows consumers to receive instant airfare and hotel price comparisons, satellite overview maps and user reviews of restaurants and tourist destinations, features that previously existed in different corners of the Yahoo network or elsewhere across the Web.
Yahoo! Search Blog:
Yahoo! FareChase (which is now in general availability) is a travel search engine that searches across many airline sites like AA.com, hotel sites like Sheraton.com, and on-line travel agency websites such as Orbitz.com and Cheaptickets.com, to give searchers a comprehensive set of prices and availability for flights and hotel rooms that is available on the web. Now with a simple web search, you can see what’s available across multiple sites without a separate visit to each site. And, the new satellite imagery we just launched in maps is also available on Yahoo! FareChase. :-)
Social Patterns:
FareChase resembles offerings from similar services like Kayak but does not poll as many sources. Here’s a list of some of the travel sites that FareChase searches. Compare that to Kayak’s airline and travel lists.
Even more exciting is the release of Yahoo APIs for the new services. You can use the APIs to search for public trips by keyword or place a FareChase box on your site. By combining user generated content (trip guides and plans) with search, Yahoo is doing what other search engines aren’t - smart search with community input.
Nathan Weinberg:
Yahoo, fresh off unveiling a top-flight local search product, has unveiled another one, one that leverages the first: Yahoo FareChase. FareChase appears much like Google’s OneBox results; if you search for something that sounds like a travel search, like “flights to new york”, you’ll see a Yahoo Shortcut asking you for a little more info. Unlike Google, though, you aren’t passed off to Orbitz or Travelocity, but to FareChase. ... There’s also a new Trip Planner site, where travelers can share their plans and see what others think of them.
Somewhat Frank:
Yahoo had a big day today (April 12, 2006) unveiling some improvements to its current map beta and to its travel search offering. The mapping improvement adds global satellite imagery to Yahoo Maps offering which is a feature that is currently offered by most of Yahoo's direct competitors with the exception of Ask Maps.
Stuart MacDonald thinks it kicks butt. News today on the Yahoo! blog of the new-and-improved Yahoo! FareChase. I just checked it out and have one word: Wow.
Reuters offers a pretty comprehansive, if not flat, review of the new service including some good quotes.
"Industry-best prices will actually show up in Yahoo search results," said Jasper Malcolmson, director of Yahoo Travel. "We have created a search engine both for best prices and destinations."
"What Yahoo has and the travel agents don't have is user generated content," Forrester Research analyst Henry Harteveldt said. "Travelers will change their behaviour based on what they see from other consumers."
Thursday, April 13, 2006
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