Archive

This week, I got emails announcing changes to two online services I subscribe to. I just sort of shrugged at one message, though it did represent a significant change in the service's business model. The second email outlined a major change as well, but my reaction to it was much stronger. It ticked...

Delta Airlines has pulled it flights from three travel aggregation sites, including BookIt.com, CheapOAir.com and OneTravel.com. Delta will honor fights that were booked on those sites before its mid-December cutoff. However, Delta did not opt to remove its listings from the travel site Orbitz, whic...

Dismayed by the prospect of Google acquiring a key service provider in the travel industry, online traveler providers have banded together to formalize their opposition to the deal. In July, Google announced a $700 million agreement to acquire ITA Software, a company that provides airline travel sof...

Google has announced plans to buy ITA Software, a major provider of airline travel software, for $700 million. ITA is a prominent player in its space -- it counts among its clients virtually all of the major Web travel information and booking providers, including such airlines as American and Contin...

Many college students have been spending the week on the beaches of Padre Island and other balmy locales, soaking up equal parts sun and alcohol. Meanwhile, the families of America are starting to think about where they'd like to dig their toes in the sand for summer vacations -- if they're not alre...

As I got ready to jump off at the next stop on my whirlwind tour of travel-planning Web sites, I found myself in the grip of something close to excitement. Trying out Priceline.com was going to be a new experience for me as well -- but it already felt familiar, thanks to my beloved William Shatner (...

I remember when Kayak accused Bing of "borrowing" some of its design features last year. At the time, I wondered if indeed Kayak had a legitimate complaint -- the sites' designs are similar. However, after reviewing four separate travel-planning Web sites, I have concluded that Bing and Kayak could...

Continuing the E-Commerce Times' exploration of travel-planning Web sites, I paddled over to Kayak this week, and after a few minutes of playing around with the site, I was inexplicably struck with the desire for ice cream. Specifically, Haagen Dazs' five simple ingredients ice cream. No doubt, you...

For this week's installment in the E-Commerce Times' series on travel-planning Web sites, I took a spin around Orbitz, completing my tour of the top three aggregators. Thus far, my biggest complaint about travel sites in general has been overcrowded user interfaces that waste space with self promoti...

My first impression of Expedia -- a site that I used to frequent but haven't visited in at least a year -- is that its design is refreshingly straightforward: a three-column layout relatively uncluttered with self-promotion. Not that it's completely devoid of such ads. (Note to Web designers: Most p...

There have been three significant developments affecting the tax battles online travel companies have been fighting around the U.S. in recent weeks, and none are positive for the OTC industry. The issue at the heart of these tax controversies is whether the OTCs should be collecting and remitting ho...

On the front line of the e-commerce tax are online travel companies such as Expedia, Hotels.com, Priceline, Travelocity and Orbitz. The issue is whether the OTCs should be collecting hotel room occupancy taxes on the difference in the price between what the OTC pays the hotel operator and the amount...

The report came out right before the economy nose-dived, before ad revenues started to shrink, before even online display advertising started feeling the recession's pinch. A February 2007 report from the Audit Bureau of Circulations -- the keepers of media buying/selling trends and standards for pu...

Looking to fill what it says is a gap in the consumer's toolbox, real estate site Zillow.com has launched a marketplace to connect home buyers with mortgages. Seattle-based Zillow -- best known for its home-price comparison offerings -- is hoping to do for mortgages what the Web has already done for...

After years of relying mainly on its own Web site as an online sales vehicle for its airfares, discount carrier JetBlue changed course Monday, striking deals to allow third-party travel sites sell tickets for its flights. JetBlue announced distribution deals with Travelocity, Orbitz, Expedia and Pri...