IN-DEPTH: The biggest challenge for a meta-search site is coverage. If it does not cover the market in full, there is no justification for the service, says Thorvald Stigsen, Founder and CEO, momondo.com.

Published: 19 Sep 2011

IN-DEPTH: The biggest challenge for a meta-search site is coverage. If it does not cover the market in full, there is no justification for the service, says Thorvald Stigsen, Founder and CEO, momondo.com.

By Ritesh Gupta

Speed and simplicity have emerged as two strong features of Google’s Flight Search offering, a product that combines ITA’s expertise with Google’s technology.

In Google’s new offering, flights are chosen primarily based on cost and total travel time, while covering a variety of departure times and airlines. Flight Search automatically sets the filters to focus on options which are reasonable in both price and duration, and users can adjust the filters to show even more flights. In addition to speed and simplicity, other highlights include figuring out when to travel (one can check which travel dates are least expensive by dragging the date selector forward or backward, or check out the bar chart to compare dates at once), and destination options (exploring possible destinations, letting users filter by airline, flight time and price. For example, one can use the map and filters to see where one can go from San Francisco within three hours for less than $300).

The offering, unveiled last week, seems like a work in progress. The new offering only offers flights for a limited number of US cities and shows results for round-trip economy-class flights only. Google has already indicated that it will add more cities and options later.

“The Google Flight Search tool definitely wins on great speed,” Thorvald Stigsen, Founder and CEO of travel search site momondo.com told EyeforTravel’s Ritesh Gupta in an interview. “However, and this is the major point, the search only support a handful of North American airlines. The biggest challenge for meta-search is coverage. If a meta-search does not cover the market in full, there is no justification for the service. If any other company than Google had launched a meta-search with such poor coverage it would not gain any attention.”

Stigsen spoke about the new offering from Google. Excerpts:

How do you assess the launch of Google’s Flight Search offering from the meta-search category's perspective?

Thorvald Stigsen:

There are a number of criteria to evaluate meta-search, mainly: How well is the market covered? How fast are the fares gathered and presented? How can the user select and filter the results? And finally: how is inspiration and additional requests are being addressed? - most meta-search/flight sites are addressing the “I know where and I know when” question, but how is the gathered data being used to inspire and answer a question like “I know when, tell me where?” or “I know where, tell me when?” etc.

The Google Flight Search tool definitely wins on great speed. The results are shown instantaneously and when the user selects a filter or changes criteria, like departure dates, the result is shown with good speed that again offers a nice flexibility. However, and this is the major point, the search only support a handful of North American airlines. The biggest challenge for meta-search is coverage. If a meta-search does not cover the market in full, there is no justification for the service. If any other company than Google had launched a meta-search with such poor coverage it would not gain any attention. I think it is a big challenge for Google to convince the market players to enter the flight search – I am especially concerned whether the online travel agencies (OTAs) will bid in on the new advertising platform.

If Google does not convince the major OTAs and the major airlines and especially all the low cost airlines to enter, the Google flight will not offer what is needed and requested by the consumer: a snap insight into the market and market transparency. Google Flight is at current just a snap insight into a handful of timetables…So to re-cap Google Flight: Speed is promising, coverage is poor. It’s an early beta, and we can only hope for more coverage.

Do you think there is a recognition that online travel needs an upgrade, and that it has to start with the core data technologies?

Thorvald Stigsen:

Online travel needs an upgrade. Superior experience is speed and coverage and the next big move in online travel will address and offer answers to a broader palette of travel questions. Inspiring where to go and combining data to promote adventure and info sharing about things to do, rather than bunches of data, fares, availabilities and promotions. Travellers want to experience and share great places. At Momondo, we build city guides and merge them with offerings from the travel space - we believe that the next big move will be on mobile apps that guide people to places and adventures as well as searching flight fares. The next big move will not be promoted by the geeks of the net, rather, it will be promoted and ramped up by the adventures of travel.

From revenue and business model perspective, how do you think this development is going to impact travel meta search engines?

Thorvald Stigsen:

Until today, the meta-search space has seen a great number of new players entering the scene daily. With Google entering the space, we believe that the newcomers will fall in number, and the current players will consolidate and improve their offerings. In this sense it is great that Google enters the scene and stops new players from entering. Google will represent a bigger threat to OTAs than to current meta-search companies like Kayak, Momondo and Skyscanner. The OTAs are concerned over Google’s new platform, and this is Google’s biggest challenge – to convince the OTAs that they will not be bid out.

The travel space is huge and there will be no one single player in the market, however margins will fall, but the companies that focus on lean operation can make good business for years to come, and we still need to see great new products in the travel space – the mobile platforms offer great opportunities for innovation. The travel circle is all about dreaming, sharing and experiencing, and not only researching. (I) would love to see how Google could merge their new purchase of Zagat into the flight and hotel search.