Back in November, I said that Google Travel was a crash landing because it provided links to OTAs like Expedia when it should have been providing links to travel search engines like Kayak, SideStep, and Mobissimo.
Last week, Yahoo! Farechase officially launched…I thought that happened about a year ago…anyways, more importantly, Yahoo! FareChase search results now show up in Yahoo! searches.
Click on the picture to see the search result for ‘flight from san francisco to honolulu:
Wow. Huge move. Yes, Travelocity, Yahoo’s long time travel partner, is still powering Yahoo! Travel, but this is a sign that Yahoo! is taking travel search seriously…even with all the money that Travelocity can (and probably will continue to) throw at Yahoo!.
While AOL Travel re-upped with Travelocity (found through Mark Johnson) signaling a stuck in the mud (or boy, isn’t that money from Travelocity really nice) approach, Yahoo! is sticking it’s head out and taking a chance as it recognizes the value travel search can provide to consumers and travel suppliers.
I’m sure Yahoo! and the OTAs will say I’m reading too much into this development and that Travelocity is still a strong partner of Yahoo, but travel search is clearly gaining momentum, and the OTAs must be VERY nervous.
How would you like to be in a business where suppliers, consumers, and key distribution partners are all discovering a better way to book trips online?
April 18th, 2006 at 1:50 pm
Yahoo bought FareChase before either Kayak or SideStep.com (the Website) was launched. Even with Yahoo’s massive warchest and consumer application development prowess, FareChase is hardly ahead of where it was when it was bought. They still don’t have a car search, their interface is clumsy and confusing, and they don’t have the cachet of the other travel search engines. I hope that Yahoo’s promotion of FareChase signals a commitment to more design/development resources, but my guess is that it’s an experiment, Travelocity will still yield more money, and it’ll be some time before Yahoo Travel can stand on its own.