5
Google Flights searches are steadily increasing and it comes to no surprise as Google Flights is built directly into Google’s search engine. Go to Google, type in an airline name such as British Airways and you’ll find directly within the search results a sponsored ad for British Airways flights from your location via Google Flights – this appears above the British Airways website (see below). In another example, type in "flight to New York" and you’ll receive, right within the search results, a list of flights from various airlines sorted by cost. In this result you can adjust the dates you’re looking to depart and return, that will update automatically, and when you’ve found what you’re looking for it will lead you directly into the Google Flights page where you can proceed to book your trip.
And while it’s already present in Google searches, Google still has the opportunity to integrate their flight and hotel system right into their applications, especially on mobile, which would be beneficial for many people already in the Google’s ecosystem. How would this work? For example, Google sees in your calendar that you have a planned meeting next month in France and gives you flight and hotel booking options based on your calendar dates. It can provided up-to-date deals and information to best suit your needs. Perhaps you’ve been searching how long a drive will take from London to Paris on Google Maps and Google offers flight deals to Paris with accommodations as well. This is a service only a few other companies in the industry are able to match. Google has all the tools at its disposal to dominate the market based around the largest search engine in the world.
Fastbooking argues that Google is set to become one of the world's most important metasearch companies and they're well on their way in doing so. Google also recently revealed they are doing early experimentation in selling bundled flights and hotels via its travel search results. This will allow users to find cheaper package deals for both flights and hotels all in the confines of a simple Google search.
Google has the world's largest search engine behind it and with that it can potentially eliminate the need to visit online booking websites all together with the growth of Google Flights and Hotels. ■
Google Search Results for Flights - Click to Expand