Connect the dots, la la la la, go to Miami, la la la la. <\/p>\n
On Wednesday, Google announced the final version of itsflight-shopping siteclearly designedto compete withthe travel industry's currentdeal-sorting titans. Dubbed Google Flights, the site shares a lot in common with Kayak and Hipmunk, meaning that if you know your destination and ideal travel dates, you can sort available flights and tweakyour schedule to easily save a few bucks. <\/p>\n
But Google Flights'key usability difference, and the newest feature since its beta launch a few years ago, is an interesting one: helping travelers make decisions when theydon't have a specific destination in mind. <\/p>\n
\"Our research shows more than half of searchers dont know where theyre going to travel when they sit down to plan,\" Google's Eric Zimmerman wrote in the product's announcement page, and he linked to a data-rich study about how Google users work out their typical travel arrangements. <\/p>\n
As such, Google Flights' default interface isn't a list of cheap flights but a worldwide map covered in red airport dotseach of which has a price tag based on the calendar dates you entered in the first place. Budge those dates and the red dot prices change almost immediately. Or youcan type something as simple as \"Europe\" in the destination bar, at which point the site will offer refined searches like \"Northern Europe\" and \"Western Europe\" for quicker multi-airport searches. <\/p>\n
In smaller Google news, the company also increased its cloud-storage song limit today. With no press release or fanfare, it bumped the limit that users can upload and privately enjoy from 20,000 songs to 50,000 this morning, thus surpassing the 25,000 limit that iTunes Match currently offers its users. (Amazon Cloud offers amuchlarger tally, but its 250,000-song storage comes with a price tag, unlike Google's and Apple's offerings.) <\/p>\n
Post updated to reflect the service's original beta launch in 2011. <\/p>\n
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Read the original here:<\/p>\n
Google mixes business with pleasure, updates Flights shopping service<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Connect the dots, la la la la, go to Miami, la la la la. On Wednesday, Google announced the final version of itsflight-shopping siteclearly designedto compete withthe travel industry's currentdeal-sorting titans Continue reading