Airline data company ITA bought by Google, airline maps hinted

10th July, 2010 by adina
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Google has announced the buyout of the airline data company ITA and has paid $700 million. Marissa Mayer, vice president of search, characterized the move as a help to increase competition related to searching for information connected with air travel. She acknowledged the company has bought ITA to develop search tools regarding flights. The deal is approved by both companies but a government approval is still waited.

Mayer did not provide other details, but the new feature is likely to be integrated as part of primary searching. It would give desktops, and probably smartphones, a built-in search tool for flights, implemented through the company’s Google Maps. A significant threat is generated to services like Kayak and Expedia. It could bypass such tools for some flight search process.

Help in flight location is already provided by Bing, which is probably the first important target for Google when concluding this deal.


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