Bing's not-so-newest push into online travel hasn't begun to roil the industry, the latest example of where if Bing does something, no one cares, but if Google does it, it's time for a Wall Street Journal story examining the potential evilness of the move. In case you missed it, the Wall Street Journal has a story out about how Google's travel results -- added in September, rather than December as the story says, have upset (as you'd expect) rival travel search engines such as Kayak, Expedia and Orbitz. Bing: Pushing Travel Search Against Google Since 2009 You have to get midway down int [...]

Related Topics: Features: Analysis | Google: Antitrust | Google: Critics | Google: Flight Search | Google: Travel Search | Microsoft: Bing Travel | Search Engines: Travel Search Engines | Top News

Finally, some good news for air travelers: Flying gets a little bit easier with Bing's launch of detailed U.S. airport maps. Much like the previously announced shopping mall maps, Bing's airport maps take searchers inside the airport to see things like gate locations, stores and restaurants on each concourse, restroom locations and more. Searchers will find the airport maps when they come across one of the 42 available U.S. airports on Bing maps. They're accessible more quickly by searching for the airport name or code (i.e., SEA for Sea-Tac International Airport). And Bing has als [...]

Related Topics: Microsoft: Bing Maps & Local | Microsoft: Bing Travel

Bing is taking the next step in its self-conscious evolution from “search engine” to “decision engine." Perhaps we could equally use the term "conversation engine," as Bing begins to emphasize social content and even tries to enable connections between people through the deeper integration of Facebook and "Likes" data. It isn't news that Bing is integrating the Facebook data; that was originally announced in October last year. Rather the news today is that Bing is entering a kind of "phase II" of the process, doing some more interesting and potentially useful things with Likes. Acc [...]

Related Topics: Facebook | Features: General | Google: Social Search | Google: Web Search | Microsoft: Bing | Microsoft: Bing Shopping & Cashback | Microsoft: Bing Social Search | Microsoft: Bing Travel | Top News

In a post on the Bing blog made earlier today, Bing Travel and Kayak have joined forces, as the two travel search engines announced a formal partnership to provide searchers with more comprehensive results. In the next few weeks (no specific timeline has been shared yet), Kayak will begin serving flight search results to Bing to give customers additional results for flights in the "U.S. from multiple cities, airports and airlines, giving customers access to a larger set of flight itineraries." The Kayak flight search data will supplement existing Bing Travel tools including Price Predict [...]

Related Topics: Microsoft: Bing | Microsoft: Bing Travel | Search Engines: Travel Search Engines | Search Headlines

Some day, the McGee family is going to pack our bags and hightail it to Hawaii. We've never been there and would love to spend a week or two on the beaches, in the mountains, and enjoying the weather. But we have no idea which island to visit. Sound familiar? Maybe you want to to head to Australia, Ireland, or somewhere else but you don't know exactly where to go for the best vacation fit. Bing has a new tool that might help. Its destination pages now let searchers compare several destinations at once in a familiar side-by-side layout. Here's what it looks like when you start to compare th [...]

Related Topics: Microsoft: Bing Travel