3 ms·

Google claims to stand for small business, but (my understanding is) part of the justification of DMA is to reduce the xonpetitive advantage of mega techs. Tha

by Gunax 3y ago

Google claims to stand for small business, but (my understanding is) part of the justification of DMA is to reduce the xonpetitive advantage of mega techs. That is, Alphabet is required to separate their various products and not use data from one to influence the other. I am guessing this is what is making Flights more cumbersome. But i think we need a legal expert to explain exactly how the law is causing this.

gretch 3y ago
I work at Google but no where near flights. From my personal perspective, I remember flight search being really really crappy before Google flights hit the scene in ~2012. Companies like Expedia, Travelocity, and Orbitz, etc and the airlines themselves just weren’t getting the job done. When Google flights gets refactored due to the regulations, my hypothesis is that we won’t see a spring of new innovation, but rather we’ll regress to the trajectory set by the old travel companies
- idle_zealot 3y ago
  If G Flights is the most popular flight booking site/tool, will it not continue to appear at the top of search results? It would just require a click-through to get to. Heck, if Google wanted they could publish some standard for exposing your site as a trip-booking tool that can appear right on a search results page like Flights does now, and if a page exposing that sort of embeddable widget ranks first in a search then it could display the widget above the results.
- WA 3y ago
  Why should it get worse? It is a separate product and works standalone, no? I for one always go directly to google.com/flights I don’t see the need to have this embedded in Google SERPs. This way, Google Flights can still link directly to airlines while having saner competition for flight aggregators.
- mrweasel 3y ago
  Mostly I've used Momondo for flights and Google Flights always seemed like the worst search engine for flights, so I don't see Google having brought much innovation to the industry. Maybe my use is just weird, because I use the flight search to find the departure I want, then go to the airlines website to book the flight.
- CaptainZapp 3y ago
  Uhh, Skyscanner was launched in 2003 and Momondo in 2006. Comparative search engines for flights existed long before Google trampled into the market.

by Gunax 3y ago

gretch 3y ago

I work at Google but no where near flights. From my personal perspective, I remember flight search being really really crappy before Google flights hit the scene in ~2012. Companies like Expedia, Travelocity, and Orbitz, etc and the airlines themselves just weren’t getting the job done. When Google flights gets refactored due to the regulations, my hypothesis is that we won’t see a spring of new innovation, but rather we’ll regress to the trajectory set by the old travel companies

idle_zealot 3y ago
If G Flights is the most popular flight booking site/tool, will it not continue to appear at the top of search results? It would just require a click-through to get to. Heck, if Google wanted they could publish some standard for exposing your site as a trip-booking tool that can appear right on a search results page like Flights does now, and if a page exposing that sort of embeddable widget ranks first in a search then it could display the widget above the results.
WA 3y ago
Why should it get worse? It is a separate product and works standalone, no? I for one always go directly to google.com/flights I don’t see the need to have this embedded in Google SERPs. This way, Google Flights can still link directly to airlines while having saner competition for flight aggregators.
mrweasel 3y ago
Mostly I've used Momondo for flights and Google Flights always seemed like the worst search engine for flights, so I don't see Google having brought much innovation to the industry. Maybe my use is just weird, because I use the flight search to find the departure I want, then go to the airlines website to book the flight.
CaptainZapp 3y ago
Uhh, Skyscanner was launched in 2003 and Momondo in 2006. Comparative search engines for flights existed long before Google trampled into the market.