Lebron James, who will be headed to the Miami Heat for the upcoming NBA season, was the most sought-after free agent since ITA Software.

The Decision, the hour-long ESPN broadcast last night which featured James revealing he will leave the Cleveland Cavaliers for South Beach to play with  Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh, was witnessed by 7.3% of U.S. TV homes and was one of ESPN’s top-rated shows of the year, according to USA Today.

Amidst all the drama of James’ decision, as he was wooed by six teams, there were a couple of interesting twists for people who follow the travel industry.

Miami Heat owner Micky Arison, who’s other hobby is serving as chairman and CEO of Carnival Corp., played an integral role in landing King James.

While the team cleared cap space to make room for James’ salary, in the run-up to The Decision,  Arison traveled to Cleveland, along with Heat president Pat Riley, coach Erik Spoelstra and former center Alonzo Mourning, in what turned out to be a successful business travel meet-up to sell James on Miami.

Arison and the rest of the group took almost three hours to make their pitch to James on July 1 in Cleveland.

It is not known whether favorite cruise destinations or mega-ships were topics of conversation.

With a cacophony of conflicting reports about where James would end up, the mystery wasn’t solved until halfway into the ESPN broadcast July 8 when James proclaimed his allegiance to the Miami Heat.

ESPN brought in Microsoft, which has a self-proclaimed “decision engine” called Bing, as one of the prime sponsors of the show, aptly named The Decision.

Bing ran several advertisements during the broadcast, including the following one which at one point shows a Bing Travel display and urges viewers to “Check out bing.com/travel and try out Price Predictor!”

Here’s the video:

Today, after The Decision and the burning of James’ jersey by some looney ex-fans in Cleveland, James, who began tweeting July 6, urged his current fans on Twitter to visit his website for updates about his Miami decision.

And, Bing — the Decision Engine — is an advertiser on James’ website.

James’ decision process about whether or not he would leave Cleveland turned into a protracted affair.

The Bing search engine works much faster.

Google acquired ITA Software today for $700 million. Here is the full statement of the acquisition:

ITA Software, Inc, a flight information software company, and Google Inc today announced that they have signed a definitive agreement for Google to acquire ITA for $700 million in cash, subject to adjustments.

“ITA’s very talented team has created an impressive product to organize flight information,” said Eric Schmidt, chairman and CEO of Google.

“Their technology opens exciting possibilities for us to create new ways for users to more easily find flight information online, and we’re looking forward to welcoming them to Google.”

“It is a privilege to work with a most skilled and dedicated team to build innovative technologies that people use every day,” said Jeremy Wertheimer, CEO & President, ITA Software, Inc. “We are all looking forward to continuing and expanding our efforts as part of Google.”

Founded in 1996 by a team of MIT computer scientists, ITA’s technically advanced solutions for organizing flight information were hailed as a catalyst for change in the online travel industry. Its innovative algorithms and deep airline industry expertise create a customizable flight data organization tool used by both airlines and online travel agencies.

The deal will allow Google to pursue the creation of new flight search tools that will enable users to find better flight information more easily on the Internet.

Google is excited about ITA’s QPX business and the opportunity to work closely with current and future customers. Google will honor all existing agreements and looks forward to adding new partners.

Microsoft opened Bing Maps to outside developers for the first time today, and BestParking.com was among the apps available in the Bing Map App Gallery on launch day.

Developers can download the Bing Maps software developers kit, use the template to build their apps and test their creations on the site itself, Microsoft says.

BestParking.com founder and CEO Ben Sann notes that consumers can open multiple apps simultaneously in Bing Maps, a development that he believes is ripe for trip-planning purposes.

In fact, users conceivably could open the Hotel Finder, Distance Calculator, Traffic, and BestParking’s Parking Finder apps together on a Bing Map to plot their journeys.

The user experience at this point is far from seamless, but the kinks probably can be worked out.

Here’s an image of the Traffic app and Parking Finder mashed up on a Bing Map.

The red, yellow and green lines represent various levels of traffic and the blue icons depict the location of and details about area parking facilities.

Sann wants to get BestParking.com apps on as many map platforms as possible for distribution purposes.

In this regard, Google Maps, Yahoo Maps and Bing Maps, among others, have begun to resemble, in their broad outlines, the major global distribution systems that travel agents use. The maps platforms are vehicles for getting travel-related and other e-commerce services in front of millions of consumers.

So, BestParking.com has rendered its services for its Bing Maps app, and uses Google Maps on its iPhone and Android apps, as well as for its website. In addition, BestParking.com can be f0und on Blackberry Maps for Blackberry devices.

Sann says Bing users can open the BestParking.com app on Bing Maps, which enables drivers to comparison shop for parking deals in neighborhoods across the U.S., and use it without having to navigate to the company’s website.

BestParking.com offers several services, including parking reservations for some of the parking lots, and monetizes these services regardless of whether consumers are accessing these features on Bing Maps or at BestParking.com, Sann says.

With Google developing hotel shopping on Google Maps and with the smorgasbord of travel-related services already available on Bing Maps, it is easy to see how electronic maps may evolve into an even more integral tool for travel planning.

It’s easy to visualize.

Retail outlet guide for mobiles, Point Inside, is unveiling a major upgrade of its service with detailed maps of airports across North America for Apple devices.

The company claims the pair of apps for iPhone and iPad are a major breakthrough in location-based mapping and guides as existing services on devices are limited to only what is available on map products such as Google or Bing.

The maps show facilities such as gate locations, bars, restaurants, shops, toilets, information booths and baggage claim areas in 50 airports around the US and Canada.

The system works by pinpointing a user’s location within an airport using what the company calls its SmartFix technology – a way of tracking the device within the facility via existing GPS or wi-fi systems and calibrating the location onto the map.

However, the company has recognised the difficulty GPS devices often have within buildings, claiming that if such a method is “inaccurate, as is often the case indoors, SmartFix prompts the user to provide her own position by selecting a nearby landmark”.

Users are also able to search for facilities and browse through maps when offline mode using data stored within the app.

Point Inside is available on all Apple devices (including Touch and iPad) and an app is expected for Android phones in the future.

CEO Kevin Foreman says the company is looking to grow the airport database in the coming months and will be targeting other countries around the world as well.

Point Inside, run by a team with experience from the likes of Amazon, AT&T, Boeing, Qualcomm, and RealNetworks, started in 2008 as a shopping app service for outlets across North America.

Wonderfully detailed statistics from Greenlight Search outlining the most effective travel sites in the UK when it comes to visibility in search for hotels.

Tnooz has got a first look at how efficient (or not) travel sites are with their SEO when attempting to rank highly in Google for a string of hotel-related keywords, with some interesting results.

The top ten in March 2010, for example, does not see TripAdvisor in the number one position overall for the 1,300 hotel keywords included in the study, perhaps challenging the often spoken mantra in the sector that it is the Master of SEO.

[Figure in brackets is the percentage of users reached within the overall volume of 12.2 million searches]

1. LateRooms (68%)
2. Lastminute.com (51%)
3. TripAdvisor (50%)
4. Booking.com (41%)
5. PremierInn (39%)
6. TravelSupermarket (36%)
7. Hilton (36%)
8. Expedia (32%)
9. Travelodge (24%)
10. Superbreak (20%)

The top ten sites for main hotel keywords, such as “hotels”, “hotel”, “bed and breakfast”, “B&B”, “cheap hotels”, “cheap hotel” and “motel”, sees a slight shift, but with LateRooms retaining its top spot.

1. Laterooms (84%)
2. Booking.com (71%)
3. Lastminute.com (69%)
4. PremierInn (68%)
5. Hilton (63%)
6. TravelSupermarket (56%)
7. TripAdvisor (47%)
8. Travelodge (42%)
9. Superbreak (23%)
10. Direct-Hotels (18%)

Where TripAdvisor does perform well is in searches for destination-specific keywords. The site tops both short haul and long haul charts (for example, “Rome hotels” or “Bangkok hotels”) ahead of Expedia and Booking.com.

The report for March 2010 also includes visibility in paid-for advertising results.

The chart is calculated by how often a site’s adspot was present in Google search results, for which ad position it bid, and associated search volume they bid on.

1. Booking.com
2. Lastminute.com
3. Expedia
4. Hotels.com
5. Ebookers
6. Laterooms
7. Travelsupermarket
8. Lowcostholidays
9. Hotwire
10. Travelodge

Observers will note that Hotels.com, Ebookers, Lowcostholidays and Hotwire did not feature in the top ten charts outline earlier for SEO.

Rumours of a deal for Google to buy ITA Software have swept around the industry for weeks, but nobody close to the pair has agreed to go on the record.

A number of senior figures in the metasearch arena, for example, have said privately that they heard a deal was in the offing. But rumours fly around the travel sector every day, especially ones involving Google.

Up until now, ITA and Google have dismissed any such suggestions.

Nevertheless, the Bloomberg wire service has published a report suggesting that a $1 billion – yes, $1 billion – deal is on the table, based on three sources.

A Google official says this morning:

“While we’re always talking to various companies about a variety of things, we don’t comment on rumour or speculation.”

If a deal goes ahead in the rumoured price range it will be one of the biggest in Google’s history following the $3.1 billion and $1.65 billion deals for DoubleClick and YouTube respectively.

The price may surprise and be a big talking point to those outside the travel sector, but for those within it will be just a marker during the wider analysis of what a deal such as this really means.

The irony of such a deal comes in many forms – firstly that ITA powers the Bing Travel metasearch system (Farecast) and also because other ITA customers such as Kayak would effectively be paying the Big G twice, through advertising and use of technology.

But the serious elements to note are as follows:

• What would be Google’s motivation for buying ITA?

In short, it would get its hands on the technology that handles airline data for metasearch engines (Kayak, Farecompare) as well as online travel agencies such as Orbitz. ITA also works with a string of airlines including Continental and United. What Google would do with the data (if anything) is a mystery at this stage, but dynamic pricing against search results seems the most obvious answer.

Google UK managing director Matt Brittin said yesterday – answering the inevitable Troogle question at the Travolution Summit in London – that Google had no intention of being a “travel agent or tour operator”.

The search engine is always experimenting and it will add more information to improve the user experience and search results, he added.

[Some might question whether dynamic pricing against travel products is just "more information" - to many it's known as metasearch]

• How will a deal impact other areas of the marketplace?

Some suggest metasearch appears to be an obvious loser. If Google is providing the same dynamic pricing on various travel products in search results of maps, why use a metasearch engine (just brand?)?

But, of course, the same could be said for online travel agencies.

Airlines may also find themselves in an awkward negotiating position given that Google would become not only one of the biggest sources of traffic but also have its strong position as the primary advertising space on the web (certainly in many markets).

Tnooz node Alex Bainbridge suggests that a benefactor of such a move might be small tour operators (his company handles software for such firms).

“Google is very good at sending traffic direct to small tour operator (supplier) websites. Yet many small tour operators don’t have the capability (or desire) to sell flights. Hence the combination of a Google flight search plus consumers being directed to specialist tour operators is better (for consumers and specialist tour operators).

“The alternative is consumers buying on OTA websites and getting little exposure to the interesting in-destination activities and tours that can be purchsed, except those featured on the OTA websites – and these tend to be dull, commoditised, city tour style tours.”

But, overall, very few beneficiaries.

• Where will it leave other tech providers?

Some say a company such as Everbread, which has seemingly been on the scene for just a matter of weeks, may find themselves suddenly thrust into the limelight as a result of such a deal, given that they are positioning themselves as a (cheaper) rival to ITA.

But at this stage the rumour-mill is simply heading into overdrive, inevitably.

One UK-based travel boss says the spectre of such a deal has been looming for months, even years, while another suggests it is simply Google moving toward Troogle.

He adds:

“They have picked, in my opinion, the best middleware tech provider, and this may be Google getting one step closer to search relevance.”

Marriott International doesn’t take kindly to Google, Yahoo and Bing selling the hoteliers trademarks as keywords to competitors and expects the search engines to change their practices.

Shafiq Khan, Marriott’s senior vice president e-commerce, says Marriott is “very concerned” about search engines selling Marriott keywords to others.

Speaking on a panel, “Hotel Executive Discussion,” at the TravelCom conference in Dallas, Khan said the practice “is a very significant issue. It is going to catch up with Google, with Yahoo with Bing.”

A Google search today for Renaissance Hotels & Resorts, a Marriott brand, turned up Expedia and Travelocity sponsored links, among others, with the word “hotels” in the text.

A Bing search today for Renaissance Hotels & Resorts produced sponsored ads from Expedia and Travelocity which were displayed higher than the Renaissance Hotels sponsored ad, like this:

And, a Yahoo search today for Renaissance Hotels & Resorts turned up an ad from Reserve Discount Hotels as the first sponsored result, like this:

Khan says Marriott is engaged in discussions with Google about its trademark-keyword practices and “we’ll be managing that with Google.”

He adds that expects Google will be a “smart company, a wise company” and will alter its practices.

The trademark issue has been a thorny one for years.

Carnival Cruise Lines recently banned its travel agency partners from using its trademarks as keywords in search engines.

Other companies have sued the search engines and otherwise pressured them to curb their practices.

In other matters, Khan says 2010 is “shaping up as a very good year,” although he adds, “I don’t think we will see 2007 again for quite some time.”

In a move likely to reignite the ongoing debate about Google’s influence over the travel industry, engineers have the sector back on their radars as they launch another AdWords Comparison Ads trial.

The extension of the Google Comparison Ads pilot to the UK announced yesterday will see a new vertical tested by the search giant: credit cards.

Comparison Ads is effectively a metasearch (or price comparison, using the Cheapflights parlance) of products already in the AdWords system.

It looks and feels like a scaled-down Kayak in terms of functionality.

Trialled for the first time in some selected states in the US with mortgages in October 2009, credit card firms will be the next sector taken on board to test pricing, interest from suppliers, functionality and user behaviour.

Google is inevitably and officially remaining tight-lipped as to how, where and when it might extend the project further.

Even back in December 2009, representatives were playing down any idea that Comparison Ads would be extended.

Fast forward two months and unofficially from within the mothership travel is now acknowledged as an obvious sector to consider for a trial given the quantity of ads in the system, size of the marketplace and the engine’s starting point for many travel consumers.

As noted previously, Comparison Ads as a concept throws up a multitude of issues for Google and advertisers alike:

• PPC ad copywriting
• Product feeds
• Google client servicing
• Product sourcing
• Feed reliability
• Placement within Google real estate
• AdSense extension

Blaise Aguera y Arcas of Microsoft Live Labs has built a formidable reputation around himself after his now famous demonstration of PhotoSynth at TED conference in March 2007.

Fast forward three years and the software engineer has used the latest TED event to unveil some incredible integration of augmented reality into Bing Maps.

Alongside some upgraded functionality to the standard viewing system, Bing has added additional layers onto the system to show off some of the more pioneering work it carries out through Live Labs.

The augmented reality system works by combining static data from images sites such as Flickr with live video streaming recorded at the same location.

The streaming, of course, wouldn’t need to be live – especially for travel DMOs using mapping with video to showcase activities or historic sites.

Glenn Gruber points to how the travel search model is being challenged by consumers deciding on where to go by what activities and things are available rather than the destination itself.

Advances in mapping technology and, as Andrew Nicholson of TravelTainment claimed last week during a  Travel Technology Europe seminar, multimedia search (especially images) is the next battleground for travel search.

Company-employee disputes are not like they used to be – if the latest spat between British Airways and a union representing cabin crews are anything to go by.

The long-running face-off between BA and Unite has gone from being ugly to downright vitriolic as Twitter accounts are launched to spread their message through social media.

Unite has already created a video for YouTube outlining its position against the company, but the use of Twitter marks an new approach and is aimed at building support from the flying public.

The airline is battling cabin crew over changes to working conditions, pay and job cuts, but its ill-fated and hugely unpopular strike action planned for the Christmas period in 2009 is widely believed to have damaged its campaign.

A Twitter account [@amicuscabincrew] launched late last year charted events and procedures for members leading up to the first strike ballot and into 2009.

The second account, under the name @unitebaupdates is far more opinion-led and tracks mentions in the mainstream media as well as using services such as Twitpic to poke fun at BA.

Neither account has thousands of followers but posts are presumably being created to appear in live search results within Google and Bing and on Twitter Search for British Airways/BA.

This week the union balloted members over strike plans for March 2009 after promising not to disrupt the Easter Holiday period.