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Google Flight Search means little for Adioso & Hipmunk

46 points| wakeless | 14 years ago |tomhoward.co | reply

7 comments

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[+] nhangen|14 years ago|reply
Cool post, and I agree. My question is probably not geared toward you, but the audience:

Why can't we just celebrate the fact that Google built something new instead of beat it to death with criticisms of how it isn't perfect or a game changer, etc?

I like new tech and new products to play with, whether they come from YC, Google, or the hacker down the street.

[+] dhackner|14 years ago|reply
I think we are all naturally a bit defensive when the fear of a great competitor leaping out from the shadows is always there - especially for travel startups where something like the Google-ITA deal that has been in the works for so long. The message I got from his article actually somewhat agrees with the question you posed: there can be sufficient room for both of them in the space and as a community we should resist being alarmist about others encroaching on what we do; in fact it can be a really good thing.
[+] joshfraser|14 years ago|reply
I'm rooting for you guys over Google, but I view speed as the #1 feature and I don't see anyway you can compete on that front right now with Google owning ITA.
[+] intractable|14 years ago|reply
Yes. It's the Italian Restaurant argument all over again.

There's room in town for more than one, and everybody you ask will have their own favourite.

[+] 0x12|14 years ago|reply
What this does mean is that you should always look carefully at where you get your traffic and your hosting. You don't want to be dependent on a big competitor for either of those.

All it takes is one tweak of an algorithm or a prolonged outage to put you out of business.

[+] jcampbell1|14 years ago|reply
The thing to fear is Google changing the SERPs in their favor. Google maps owns the local space because all local searches lead to Google maps. In this case, unlike local, I don't think there are many searches for Google to hijack (I think they call it "OneBox"). I agree that it means little other than Google is going to monopolize the travel press for a few weeks.
[+] Hisoka|14 years ago|reply
It means little to Hipmunk because they don't exactly have huge traction yet... They're more of a threat to Expedia or Orbitz. Hipmunk isn't even mainstream.