Online - March 05, 2005

Strip Search

Kayak.com Travel Search Engine

Used to be the best way to get to your destination was by plane, train, or automobile.

Now it’s the kayak.

Poised to one-up sites like Mobissimo and Orbitz, the recently launched Kayak.com wants to be the be-all-end-all of travel search engines. (Airfares and hotels are covered; cars are coming soon.)

Theirs is a self-professed Google-meets-Amazon approach, which means cherry-picking from aggregator sites (like Sidestep and Mobissimo), agencies, and airline sites and adding a slew of excellent techie tricks and tools.

Here’s what’s great: Listings are totally impartial. (No pay-for-placement arrangements with airlines, a common industry practice.) Searching is faster. (You can watch the progress.) As you refine your search (love the price slider), the info refreshes without forcing you to wait for a reload. And Kayak.com also searches Jet Blue. (No one lists Southwest but Southwest.) There’s no clutter on the page, and they say there never will be.

The team behind the magic comprises founders of Orbitz, Travelocity, and Expedia. People, in other words, who know their way around the infuriating, Byzantine world of online reservations.

And would never send you up the river (or across the country) without a paddle.

Available online at kayak.com.

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