At the beginning of July Google announced that they are muscling in on the online travel industry. They're buying a company, ITA software, who supply airfare information to the travel industry. Their clients include Orbitz, Kayak, and Microsofts very own Bing. Some analysts see Google getting into the industry as a result of what Bing are offering. My feeling is that travel has been an excellent fit for the web & Google sees a massive opportunity. It can take advantage of it's current search and mapping technology and apply it to the travel industry; in addition it's now got a stepping stone into the industry by acquiring ITA software.

 

Opportunity?

According to their press release, they've got no plans to sell tickets directly to consumers. The main threat is to meta search engines which collate travel information; Orbitz & Kayak for example which are essentially comparison sites. I think the shake up will benefit airlines and hotels directly rather than these aggregation sites because they'll be the ones that will get the bulk of the referrals (rather than the meta search engines). 

 

According to Google: “Once we’ve completed our acquisition of ITA, we’ll work on creating new flight search tools that will make it easier for you to search for flights, compare flight options and prices and get you quickly to a site where you can buy your ticket.”

 

I think this will lead to further innovation in the online travel space, when Google gets involved you can be sure that they'll start shaking up the industry. Watch this space!

 

See the official Google blog for more info.