Google Flight Search means little for Adioso & Hipmunk
NB This post was republished on Tnooz on 15 Sep 2011.
Being located 17 hours ahead of Silicon Valley often has you lagging behind on the big news. On waking this morning at home in Melbourne, the inbox and Twitters were abuzz. Google had launched a flight search product.
As the “other” YC-funded travel search startup, people just wanted to be sure we’d heard the news. Most were just interested in our thoughts. At least one feared for our future.
Over at HackerNews, once you waded past the protracted debate over Google’s evilness, several commenters asserted with certainty that this would spell death for travel startups like Hipmunk. The news had one anonymous travel startup founder throwing himself out the proverbial window.
When Google first announced its intention to acquire ITA Software in July 2010, we at Adioso thought it was a huge deal that would materially influence our...