What Would 'Troogle' Mean for Travelers?
Rumors are flying that Google could be preparing to purchase one of the most influential travel software firms in the world.
For all those wondering about the importance of another rumored Google purchase of a firm largely unknown by the general public - this time of travel software firm ITA - perhaps the size of the deal is an indicator of the potential impact.
Reports suggesting that Google is in talks to purchase ITA have given a figure of $1 billion (€747 million), not far behind the $1.65 billion (€1.23 billion) price tag the search giant paid for YouTube.
Of course, Google doesn't just throw that sort of money around - while most consumers will have never heard of ITA, the company powers some of today's household names and a reported 65 percent of online airline bookings.
So if you've ever used Fly.com, Hotwire, Orbitz, or TripAdvisor for price comparison, chances are you've used ITA's software. If you've booked direct from carriers such as Continental, American Airlines or Alitalia, the prices were probably generated by ITA software. And crucially, if you've ever searched for a flight on Microsoft's Bing - well, ITA was probably behind that too.
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Source - The Independent
