Topic: Farecast

SearchCap: The Day In Search, August 1, 2013

Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the Web. From Search Engine Land: Five Years Later, Ex-Farecast Founder Asks “What Is Bing Doing?” Oren Etzioni, the founder of Farecast who sold it to Microsoft in 2008, says he’s “disappointed” with Bing’s development and “expected […]

Five Years Later, Ex-Farecast Founder Asks “What Is Bing Doing?”

Oren Etzioni, the founder of Farecast who sold it to Microsoft in 2008, says he’s “disappointed” with Bing’s development and “expected more” from Microsoft’s search engine. As Geekwire reports, Etzioni made his comments to an audience last night at a Startup Grind event in Seattle. “What is Bing doing, period? So many smart people, so […]

The Big Roundup: Finding Black Friday & Cyber Monday Deals & Specials

We’re already well into Black Friday. In many US stores the frenzy began last night at 10 pm or midnight (as opposed to the normal 4 am door-busting start time). People barely had time to overcome the sleep-inducing effects of L-tryptophan before getting out into the melee. And the word “melee” aptly describes the scene […]

A New Search Engine for Hotel Rooms: Room 77 Launches

Like “seat guru for hotel rooms,” was my immediate thought; Room 77 is a search engine for hotel rooms. The site is creating and indexing data on hotels in the US and UK (and eventually around the world) that qualify with three stars and above. There’s also an iPhone app launching simultaneously today. There are […]

Microsoft Joins FairSearch Group Opposing Google-ITA Acquisition

Microsoft has long and openly been involved in opposing some of Google’s high-profile deals and acquisitions. It helped scuttle the proposed Google-Yahoo search deal that paved the way for its own deal with Yahoo. It unsuccessfully opposed the DoubleClick and AdMob acquisitions. It also owns Ciao, one of the complainants that helped launch the recent […]

Feds Consider Google-ITA Deal: Damned If You Do, Damned If You Don’t

In what is becoming an annual ritual Google announces a dramatic acquisition, pundits speculate about the potentially market-changing impact and anti-trust investigators give it a long, hard look — only to allow it in the end. Last year the transaction in question was AdMob; this year it’s ITA software. Since the roughly $700 million deal […]

Bing’s Stefan Weitz: Where Is Search Going?

In my last column, I had the chance to chat with Bing Director Stefan Weitz about how Microsoft is approaching search as it sits today. But the question I asked that lead to the interview in the first place was “Where does search go from here?” Microsoft’s Bing team certainly has its own ideas of […]

Bing’s Stefan Weitz: Rethinking The Search Experience

Way back when, in the dying weeks of 2009, I asked the question, “Where does search go from here?” It seems that everyone agrees we’ve barely scratched the potential that is web search, but what might that scratch reveal? What will our searching look like in two years? In five years, or even in ten […]

Google AdSense Radio Ads & Microsoft Bing Travel TV Commercial

Google has been recently promoting AdSense over the radio, in fact, @AdSense tweeted about the radio commercial, asking if “you heard it, and where.” A Google spokesperson confirmed the AdSense radio ads in a statement to Search Engine Land: Google is currently running radio ads to promote AdSense. AdSense is an innovative program that helps […]

SearchCap: The Day In Search, June 12, 2009

Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Google Analytics Now Considers Bing A Search Engine As promised, Google Analytics is now logging traffic from Microsoft’s new Bing search engine into the “search engine” traffic source category, rather than […]

Meet Bing, Microsoft’s New Search Engine

The speculation is over. Microsoft’s search engine officially has a new name, Bing. The name, along with some new features, opens the latest chapter in Microsoft’s quest to best Google in the search engine wars. If you’re expecting Bing to be a Google-killer, reset your expectations. The most dramatic change, in my view, remains the […]

Microsoft’s Bing Vs Google: Head To Head Search Results

Let’s just get it out of the way: no, Bing is not a “Google Killer.” It’s also safe to say that Microsoft doesn’t see it that way either. My understanding of what Microsoft believes it has in Bing is a much more competitive product than Live Search. I entirely agree. Over the course of the […]

Microsoft Buys Travel Search Site Farecast

Travel search site Farecast was rumored to be a takeover target recently and the CEO has confirmed that the site has indeed been acquired by Microsoft. TechCrunch, citing John Cook at the Seattle PI, says the deal was worth something in the $100-$115 million range.

Farecast Offers Hotel Search

In the context of a larger discussion of how data mining is being used by several Internet sites, Gary Price posts about the introduction of hotel search on the Farecast site. Farecast’s core service has sought to save consumers money by using historical information and other data to determine whether airfares are rising or falling […]