EyeforTravel News: Search Engines Feed

Ryanair justifies 'screenscraper' cancellations

Lindi — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 07:15:43 +0100

The Commission sought information on whether Ryanair was breaking European law on passenger rights.

Ryanair provided the Commission with detailed documentary evidence to demonstrate that these screenscraper/ticket-tout websites are:

· Guilty of unauthorised and illegal access to the Ryanair.com website.

· In breach of Ryanair.com's copyright.

· In breach of Ryanair's terms and conditions of travel and terms and conditions of use.

· Do not provide consumers with Ryanair's accurate terms and conditions.

Tripmela launches rate comparison engine in India

Lindi — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 09:26:41 +0100

The company, an online publisher of airfare specials, hotel deals, and travel packages, says Searchmela is not a meta-search tool, which requires consumers to sift through a list of results and then finally click on the hotel rates they want to visit. With Searchmela, the consumer simply types in the city and dates of travel, and Searchmela will take them directly to the search results page on as many sites as they want to compare with one click.

Ctrip.com ties up with Google

Lindi — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 09:18:21 +0100

As per the information available, the Chinese website will integrate its own data to launch the travel top lists jointly with the Google Rebang, offering travel references for customers. Moreover, it will also make wider and deeper cooperation with Google in e-map.

In addition, Ctrip.com will provide information for users to search quickly information of hotels and air tickets. Users also can enjoy one-stop service combining information displaying and reservation services.

Microsoft increases its focus on commercial search

Lindi — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 10:29:13 +0100

Jeff Kelisky, formerly CEO of Multimap, has been appointed as General Manager of commercial search to lead the worldwide business for commercial search.

An important strategic development for Microsoft, it includes features such as cashback, MSN shopping, local, consumer mapping, Virtual Earth and mobile.

Kelisky will report to Brad Goldberg, General Manager of the Search Business Unit based in Redmond, US and will manage a global team including Jim Cruickshank, who was recently appointed Director of mapping, local and shopping for Microsoft, EMEA.

Kayak appoints MD for Europe and Asia

Lindi — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 08:06:04 +0100

Galaria will report directly to Steve Hafner, CEO and Co-founder of Kayak.com and will work alongside Keith Melnick, EVP of Corporate Development.

With this appointment, Kayak is looking at gaining market share for its websites in the UK, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and India.

Prior to joining Kayak.com, Galaria was General Manager and VP Corporate Development for Jaman.com, an online high-definition movie service based in California.

Evaluating response of ads on social networking sites

Lindi — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 12:22:31 +0100

Sharing experience of working on such campaigns, Aer Arann's head of sales and marketing Colin Lewis acknowledges that online social networking is clearly becoming the most consumed online activity.

Ryanair to cancel all ticket purchases made through price comparison websites

Lindi — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 10:29:30 +0100

As per the information available, from August 11, the airline will cancel bookings made through websites which use screen-scraping, which entails lifting details from one website to produce a mirror of the original page on another. Up to 1,000 Ryanair passengers a day could find themselves stranded without flights as a result of an aggressive new policy at the airline.

"We are free to cancel a booking," said Ryanair CEO Michael O'Leary. "We want to cause as much chaos for the screen scrapers as possible."

Ryanair will refund the cost of the flight to the intermediary website.

Cheapflights re-launches its UK site

Lindi — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 08:22:05 +0100

The website now possesses new deal filters, easier site navigation, and other new features. Some of the new introductions are as follows:

· It has an enhanced location-based search function, giving consumers better ways to find the best deals for their chosen type of destination.

· For consumers "browsing" for alternative destinations, the new site has a geographical tab enabling consumers to quickly find deals and guides in Europe, North & South America, Asia, Africa and Oceania.

· The site remembers the last five destinations searched for.

"Our plan is to turn Travelpost.com into a true competitor to TripAdvisor"

Lindi — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 08:56:29 +0100

In an interview with gadling.com, co-founder and CEO Steve Hafner said Kayak.com launched a beta version of a package product recently. "We hope to add several more providers over the next two weeks and formally launch the vacations product soon. Kayak.com is the first travel site to offer a true meta-search product for vacation packages."

Hafner also mentioned that the travel search engine had recently introduced Flight Quality functionality which allows the user to filter red-eyes, departure/return from same airport, aircraft type, etc.

Wego plans launch of local sites in Asia Pacific

Lindi — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 08:04:46 +0100

With this, Australia has become the second largest market for the company.

"Australians are sophisticated online users when it comes to travel and there is enormous potential here. Growth for the Asia Pacific online travel market has been estimated to hit 50 percent from 2006 to 2009 and Australia is a key market," said Wego CEO Martin Symes.

Wego recently opened an office in Sydney, headed by marketing manager Sam Lindner.