14 DAY TRIAL // Google finally has something to show for itself after the much-talked-about, for all the bad reasons, acquisition of flight data and services provider ITA Software. The acquisition under went government anti-trust scrutiny but was approved in the end. Now, Google is debuting a dedicated flight search tool, built into its search engine, powered by ITA.
"Starting today, when you search for flight information on Google, for example 'flights from Chicago to Denver,' you will see a 'Flights' link in the left-hand panel," Kourosh Gharachorloo, engineering director at Google, announced.
"This link leads to our new Flight Search feature, and is offered in addition to the flight schedules which have been available since May," he said.
The feature debuting now is just the first iteration. Google wants to build more features and add more data to it, but what is available now can be useful and offers an idea on what the tool will be like when done.
The feature is also available at a dedicated location, google.com/flights. There, you can search for flights to and from several US destinations. Not all cities are included and there are no international flights for now.
Using the filters available, you can set a departure and return date and also find out when it would be the cheapest to fly. You can also restrict results to flights lasting less than a set time or costing less than what you're willing to pay.
Google says that flights are ranked according to price and duration. No airline gets preferential treatment and all of the ticket buying links airline websites.
There are several limitations at this point. Flight Search only lists economy class flights and only two-way ones. Google plans to expand this and also include more cities, around the world, eventually.