Norm Rose
Norm Rose, senior technology and corporate market analyst with PhoCusWright, a travel research and consulting company based in Sherman, Connecticut. www.PhoCusWright.com
New free service for finding flights debuts at www.Google.com/flights. The easy-to-use interface lets you filter inquiries by price, airline and route or search for flights by clicking on a map. The list of fares loads almost instantly. Google’s entry into flight search is tied to its recent acquisition of ITA Software, a provider of flight data. Google says its flight search still is being refined, but competitors have already taken notice and are looking for ways to make their travel searches more user-friendly. Don’t stop using other flight-search sites that you like… just try adding Google’s system to see if you think it provides more useful information.