It’s clear that Microsoft’s Bing isn’t the most popular search engine, but they just launched a cool new travel tool that might just make us "Bing and decide" a little more often.

There’s now 42 different airport maps available through the search engine, and if things go well they’ll soon be expanding outside the nifty fifty. Now you don’t have to explore—the often archaic—airport websites to find what you need. With Bing you can easily access where to find a quick bite to eat, an overpriced latte, or just where to pickup your suitcase. The full airport list is right here, from Omaha to Orlando. ]]> kjb 2011-10-03T08:34:26-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2010/5/10/155733/828

Google News. Google Docs. Google Finance. Google Reader. Is Google Travel next?

Google's foray into travel last March, when the Mountain View giant added hotel listings and room rates to Google Maps, increasingly seems like it was just the beginning of the company's plans to compete in yet another sector.

Microsoft's upstart Bing has long touted its travel search engine as one of the niches where it bests Google, but that might not be true much longer. Google is earnestly pursuing—and may be on the brink of purchasing—ITA Software, the company that provides the software for Orbitz, Kayak, CheapTickets, a bunch of airlines, and even Bing Travel. ]]> Omri 2010-05-10T16:39:27-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2009/11/10/151343/99

When the tech world's two major borgs square off for travelers' time and attention, that can only be good news for the rest of us. Google had already arranged for free WiFi on Virgin America flights and—as of this morning—they're also giving it away at more than 40 airports across the country. But that's small time compared to the deal Microsoft just struck to promote their search engine Bing.

Bing has worked out an arrangement with WiFi provider JiWire which will allow users to get free Internet in exchange for doing just one search on Bing. This is a campaign that will reach all of JiWire's hotspots which, more or less, amounts to just about everywhere:]]> Omri 2009-11-10T17:04:25-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2009/6/25/13011/9357

Microsoft's new Bing search engine hasn't even been available to the public for a month yet and already it's under fire for potentially copying the site's design from good old Kayak. We have to admit that we thought it looked a little too familiar, and the people at Wired recently tore it apart and aired claims on both sides:

There’s no question Bing feels like Kayak. When Microsoft showed us the search engine under embargo, this reporter’s first comment upon seeing the travel page demo’d was 'This looks like Kayak.'

Kayak noticed too. 'We have contacted them through official channels about concerns about the similarities between Bing and Kayak,' Kayak’s CMO told Wired.com 'From the look and feel of their travel product, they seem to agree with our approach to the market.'

That’s careful language for 'Microsoft copied our stuff wholesale.'

]]> JetSetCD 2009-06-25T14:52:17-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2009/6/2/123852/6009

Our Chinese visa expired last month, and after today's news we doubt we'll be renewing it any time soon. Seeking to quiet social media networks before the 20th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square Massacre on June 4, China has blocked the population from accessing a surprising range of the internet's most popular communication tools. Currently affected by the ban are: Twitter, Flickr, YouTube, Wordpress, Blogger, Bing (which hasn't officially even launched), Hotmail and MSN's Live.com.

While there's no word yet on if this ban will continue after Thursday, what is apparent is that the country is only drawing more attention to itself at the same time as it cripples the communication channels of its modern businesses. Taking this one step further, we see serious repercussions for tourism to China because of it.]]> JetSetCD 2009-06-02T13:07:10-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2009/5/28/144025/866

While we've tinkered around with predicting airline ticket prices using MSN's Farecast engine, we always seem to pick the routes that cannot be computed or have no cool historical graphs over which to drool. So we're hoping that the upcoming launch of Bing Travel, a combination of Farecast and MSN Travel's content works out much better in terms of doing what is says it will.

And what it says it's going to do is go beyond simply returning results from search queries to help you make a decision. They're even calling it a "decision engine," a kind of Wolfram-Alpha of travel results, able to tell you if what you just paid for your air ticket or hotel room is the cheapest at the moment.

In addition, MSN wants you to keep returning to Bing Travel for more than just price updates and wanderlust indulgences; the site will be supplemented by an online community with blogs from the likes of Peter Greenberg and Pauline Frommer. Watch for it to go live by June 3, but until then check out their official Twitter, the @Fareologist.

Related Stories:
· Announcing Bing Travel [Farecast/MSN]
· Travel Websites Coverage [Jaunted]

[Image: Bing.com]]]> JetSetCD 2009-05-28T15:57:02-05:00 Search Jaunted string http://www.jaunted.com/search/