Google testing expanded flight search results

Whether the ITA Software acquisition gets approved or not, Google is testing enhanced flight-search results.

“We did test an update to our existing flight search feature, which launched in 2005,” a Google spokesperson says. “This update includes some new information. For example, when searching on routes with direct connections (e.g., flights from San Francisco to Minneapolis], the feature will indicate nonstop carriers, average flight times and a full schedule of flights.”

For the benefit of conspiracy theorists lurking in the weeds, the spokesperson points out that “this experiment is unrelated to our agreement to acquire ITA Software. At any given time Google is running between 50 and 200 search experiments.”

Any development of a flight-search product leveraging ITA Software technology and data most likely awaits Dept. of Justice approval.

ITA Software confirms that Google does not currently license the ITA Software airfare pricing and shopping solution, QPX.

Google has offered at least a couple of flight-search tools for several years.

Enter “San Francisco to New York flights” into the Google.com search box, for instance, and you’ll view links to booking or search engines from Expedia, Travelocity, Priceline, Orbitz, Hotwire, Kayak and Cheapoair. The default choice is Expedia. The widget looks like this:

Google also has an existing Flight Tracker tool. Here’s what it looks like:

For flights in the U.S., you can enter information and view arrival and departure status.

The recent experiments included at least one A/B test, according to an industry source, and were geared to update and and make more comprehensive existing flight search tools. City pairs that weren’t previously covered were added, for example.

And, entering “Buffalo flights,” for instance, would produce results for all airports served, the source says.

And, the test also produced information on nonstop flights, average flight times and a full schedule of flights from various airlines, the source says.

Google’s confirmation that it ran tests on an improved flight search feature came in response to a question about a financial analyst’s note that Google was testing a new travel metasearch product.

FairSearch.org and other opponents of the Google-ITA Software deal speculate that perhaps Google is working on a flight metasearch product.

The test, however, apparently was of a flight search product, but not a travel metasearch product, according to the industry source.