Travel Search Engines Heating Up this Summer

It should be an interesting 2006 for Travel Search Engines based on the recent press the sector has received.

Here are some highlights from a recent Bob Tedeschi's article in NY Times on travel meta-search:

… Kayak's chief executive, Steven Hafner, said his company would embark next month on a multimillion-dollar television advertising campaign — the first for a travel meta-search site.

Other analysts say they believe that Google and MSN may simply follow Yahoo's lead (purchased FareChase) and buy the niche search players. "I've always thought pretty much all of them are ripe for acquisition," said Ms. Dougherty, of Nielsen/NetRatings. "If someone wants to play catch-up fast, that's the way to go."

Paul R. La Monica from CNN Money filled a report on how Google might spend their $10 billion dollar war chest, a couple of highlights:

…Bill Tancer, general manager of global research with Hitwise, an Internet research firm, thinks Google needs to make more deals in social networking. He said Google's biggest threat will not come from search engines like Yahoo!, Microsoft's, MSN or IAC/Interactive's Ask.com but from MySpace, the social networking site owned by News Corp.

…He added that online travel search is another area Google should target, with sites such as privately held SideStep, Kayak and Mobissimo being possible buyout candidates.