To dream of flying

December 1, 2022 1:34 PM

The big search company that people have complicated feelings about
+ fantasizing about traveling somewhere, anywhere
+ a corporate tool for buying plane tickets
+ a fun interface design
= google.com/travel/explore
posted by Going To Maine (7 comments total)

I am admittedly confused. Is this a new feature? Google bought ITA, what, fourteen years ago? They've had a travel search product for at least a decade, but it doesn't provide anything that the other giants in the space provide (disclaimer: I worked for one of the other giants for a couple of years). Airline tickets are on razor-thin margins for everyone involved, and consumers are so sensitive to price that there's no wiggle room for the typical "innovate ALL THE THINGS" tech company nonsense, so you tend to see everyone providing the same features, filters, and even UI across search sites. This one looks like it's geared toward encouraging users to check out flights to places they wouldn't otherwise consider, which is cool. The cynic in me suspects that behind the curtains, the list of "spontaneous" destinations is determined by the highest bidder.
posted by Mayor West at 1:49 PM on December 1, 2022

Is this a new feature?

I don’t know. I found the interface today, and I thought it was cool.
posted by Going To Maine at 1:53 PM on December 1, 2022 [1 favorite]

Yeah, this has been around for quite a while, though the normal entry point is via searching for flights in the normal search.
posted by sagc at 1:56 PM on December 1, 2022 [1 favorite]

posted by Going To Maine

attempted mindhack detected
posted by glonous keming at 2:24 PM on December 1, 2022 [16 favorites]

I was hoping for something more like MapCrunch, tbh.
posted by mhoye at 3:03 PM on December 1, 2022 [1 favorite]

Travel brochures online.
The best way to travel is not to plan, just go there.
posted by beesbees at 9:56 PM on December 1, 2022

It seems to consider trains to be a special case of 'aeroplane', and doesn't know about many of them, which results in an unhealthy fixation on flying somewhere then getting a hire car to your destination city.
posted by Luddite at 2:19 PM on December 2, 2022