Google Flights

Google Flights is an online flight booking service which facilitates the purchase of airline tickets through third party suppliers.

History

In April 2011, the Federal government of the United States approved Google's $700 million purchase of ITA Software. On September 13, 2011 Google launched Google Flights, which used algorithms gained from this purchase.

Features

An innovation of Google Flights is that it allows open-ended searches based on criteria other than destination; for example, a user may search for flights within a range of times and a budget and be offered various destination choices.

Response

The service was immediately compared to competitors such as Expedia, Orbitz, Kayak.com, and Bing. Competitor Kayak.com issued a statement that their service was superior to Google's and that they would be competitive.

There was no immediate change in the price of stocks for Priceline, Expedia, or Travelzoo in response to the opening of Google Flights.

Shortly after the site launched counsel for Expedia testified to the Senate Judiciary Antitrust Subcommittee that Google failed to keep a promise to rank Google Flight listings below the listings of competitors in a Google search.

Google

Google Inc. is an American multinational technology company specializing in Internet-related services and products. These include online advertising technologies, search, cloud computing, and software. Most of its profits are derived from AdWords, an online advertising service that places advertising near the list of search results.

Google was founded by Larry Page and Sergey Brin while they were Ph.D. students at Stanford University. Together they own about 14 percent of its shares but control 56 percent of the stockholder voting power through supervoting stock. They incorporated Google as a privately held company on September 4, 1998. An initial public offering followed on August 19, 2004. Its mission statement from the outset was "to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful," and its unofficial slogan was "Don't be evil". In 2004, Google moved to its new headquarters in Mountain View, California, nicknamed the Googleplex. In August 2015, Google announced plans to reorganize its interests as a holding company called Alphabet Inc. When this restructuring took place on October 2, 2015, Google became Alphabet's leading subsidiary, as well as the parent for Google's Internet interests.

Flights

Flights are an English alternative/progressive rock band formed in May 2010 in Bristol. The band comprises Joel Pearce on vocals/guitars, Joe Newcombe on guitars/vocals, Dean Bowden on bass/vocals and Adam Cann on drums.

In describing their music, Cann has said "We’ve fallen into progressive rock – soundscapy too I think.” Flights cite their primary influences as Oceansize, Radiohead, Reuben and Yourcodenameis:milo. Flights have also described their style as "Some big guitars, some pretty guitars, irregular time signatures, harmonised vocals and a whole lotta groove."

History

Formation

Joe Newcombe, Adam Cann and Joel Pearce come from Thornbury, a market town in South Gloucestershire approximately 12 miles (19 km) north of Bristol. From age 13, Newcombe and Cann had played together in various bands (Cradle Of Fluff, Alcoholic Spider). They met Pearce (then a member of Enigma Design) while playing in pubs in the Thornbury region. When Newcombe went to university he met Dean Bowden and subsequently Newcombe, Bowden and Cann went on to play together in a band called Just For Hustlers. Deciding they wanted to try something different, they then recruited Pearce (who had discussed starting a band with Cann during Friday drinking sessions) and thus completed the Flights line-up. Flights played their first gig in a small Bristol venue called The Louisiana debuting the tracks "Charity Calendars" and "The Mapmaker" among others.