Archive for the ‘Travel Websites’ Category

A travel blog without a reference to Kayak.com, is not a travel blog.

Sunday, March 1st, 2009

How did we live without Kayak.com?

More importantly, how did we save money without Kayak.com?

a-kayak-big-orange

Kayak.com is simply the best tool for traveling that exists on the web today. You’ll notice I added them as one of my favorite links on my travel links page, in the first position I might add.

It is no secret that I am a huge fan of aggregated content. In fact, that is what my website is all about.

Kayak aggregates offers from all over the web, standardizes them, and presents them in an easy to use interface.

I was recently looking for a flight from Ft. Lauderdale (FLL) to Grand Rapids, Michigan (GRR). I will not fly on turboprop airplanes, nor will I depart earlier than 10am (generally I am not a morning person). I had over a dozen options within one minute of searching with the above requirements.

Furthermore, I signed up for email alerts for that specific flight. I had an account in less than 10 seconds (they only require you to give email and password).

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kayak-tools

Here are a few excerpts from their about page, which sums up the type of company they are.

Kayak has been named “Best of the Web” by BusinessWeek, “Best of the Web” by Forbes.com, “50 Coolest Websites” by TIME Magazine, “Best Travel Search Engine” by the Associated Press, “Best Search Aid” by Travel + Leisure Magazine and “Best of the Web” by US News & World Report. See all our awards or read what the media is saying about us.

Kayak was started by founders of Orbitz, Travelocity and Expedia who believed in a better online travel experience. They hired a crack team of geeky engineers who brought expertise from all over the Web, finagled a couple ducats out of General Catalyst, Sequoia Capital and Accel Partners. Along the way, Kayak redefined the way people search and purchase travel online.

Fly.com falls short of expectations.

Tuesday, February 24th, 2009

fly-com

If you aren’t receiving the TravelZoo.com newsletter, I highly suggest it.

Though, the most recent newsletter left me rather disappointed.

Today’s newsletter talked about the beta launch of Fly.com, TravelZoo’s most recent launch of a travel service. I have to say that when I saw the domain name Fly.com, I started to conjure up some gnarly images of the types of things you could do with this domain. You could create a pretty killer web 2.0 app that would give a 3d interactive tour of airplanes for the purpose of picking your seat. It could be the largest archive for aircraft specifications in the world with a partnership with Google to properly organize the centuries worth of information.

But no. I get to the website, and it is just like SideStep.com, with a different logo. Furthermore, I prefer the sidestep.com interface to this one. I applaud the design, as it is simplistic and to the point. However, THIS SERVICE ALREADY EXISTS in a plethora of other spots. But to be honest, it is OK to create a new website that offers a similar service, but why create something that is almost identical? Not only that, but they are calling themselves the same thing, which is a “travel search engine”.

I suggest you open up two windows side by side, one of them is fly.com, and the other is sidestep.com. You don’t have to know anything about either site to immediately notice a difference.

To me, the lack of creativity in the travel industry is starting to show in spades. Back as far as I can remember, TravelZoo.com was always one of the first and greatest traveling resources on the net, dating back to the late 90’s. It is a shame that they lack the creativity to do something spectactular with all of their resources. Because if they own Fly.com, and they can replicate SideStep.com to such a degree, clearly they are capable of something more.

Maybe they need to move their offices to Silicon Valley and hang out with some of the ROR developers in San Francisco.

-Mr. Travel