Yesterday evening I was all set to write a blistering diatribe against Orbitz, Travelocity, United Airlines, and American Airlines for their clumsy, inept, and frustrating online reservation systems. I found each of these sites almost impossible to use when I wanted to explore variations to my itinerary, and instead of enjoying making reservations via the web I began to miss the good old days of travel agents.
This morning, I found a travel site that's so superior that it puts those others to shame. Kayak, a relative newcomer to the field, has a brilliantly-executed search tool interface. Their interface disaggregates each part of your trip into a separate, visible controls. Do you want to see a different range of departure times? Change the slide control. Do you want to explore different airports? Check or uncheck the list of airlines. Kayak uses dynamic web technology (AJAX, as far as I can tell) that provides instant answers, instead of the slow and annoying updates used by the other sites.
Kayak faces some tough challenges because, after all, the ideas in their user interface can likely be copied. Kayak's information comes from other web sites, and therefore it's also vulnerable to how willingly those sites share information. Kayak's revenues, on the other hand, depend on advertising and commissions from click-through sales, which is a very solid business model. But there's little question that Kayak's brilliant interface sets the standard for travel sites, a solid win in the area of innovation.
Topics: · business · internet · predictions
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