Yahoo!
Yahoo! has jazzed up searches conducted on its normal search site for travel, culling search results, maps, and user reviews that can all help prospective travelers find exactly what they want for the best price. For example, the site should help people find cheap airfares, scouring both its own Farechase system as well as other sites, and allow them to check out hotels using maps and satellite views of the surrounding environs. Pretty nifty.
Furthermore -- no surprise here -- Yahoo! is leveraging the strength of its user base by having customer reviews available to help prospective travelers make their decisions. It's no secret that user-generated content and reviews have been a big boon for many of the big players on the Internet, and Yahoo! has so many users that it's certainly a quick and easy way to make its services more helpful by scouring the collective experiences of the community.
It's a great idea -- and it's an idea that Google
Not least of which is Expedia
I played around with the travel-related search functions on Yahoo! and found them pretty useful. However, when most people think travel, do their fingers automatically key in, say, Expedia or Travelocity? Maybe Internet users are ready for the obvious benefits of search innovation from portals and search giants to find the best travel deals. If that's the case, Yahoo!'s onto something here.
Take a trip down memory lane with some recent, related content:
- Fools dueled about Yahoo! recently.
- Are AOL and Travelocity dinosaurs in denial?
- Read about Amazon and SideStep.
- Is the runway crowded for Expedia?
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Alyce Lomax does not own shares of any of the companies mentioned.