The programmers behind Yahoo’s Farechase travel metasearch have included everything but the kitchen sink with the recent relaunch of the flight and hotel website.
“What do you need?”
“Ajax. Lots of Ajax.”
— product manager Keanu Reeves in The Matrix version of Farechase Relaunched
There may not be a kitchen sink in Farechase, but one of the features allows visitors to find restaurants along with attractions and airports on the map accompanying a hotel search.
Many Yahoo users may see Farechase in Yahoo Search first. Fiona Lake Waslander from the Yahoo Travel team posted about the Farechase update, and where someone using the portal site’s search engine may see Farechase results appear.
When searching for flights to a destination in Yahoo Search, a new “Search multiple travel sites using Yahoo! FareChase” section appears below any top-of-page sponsored links. If Yahoo already knows one’s location, it will appear as the departure for a flight.
Visitors can select the travel dates and number of adults and children flying, and start a Farechase search across those multiple sites. A similar section appears in Yahoo Search when looking for hotels; a query to “compare Orlando hotels” for example will retrieve this.
The latest update to Yahoo Maps incorporating satellite imagery also appears on Farechase. Travelers can view a map, satellite, or hybrid view of a destination when searching for hotels. Clicking on a hotel link from Yahoo Search brings the user to Farechase and a map-centric view of those hotels and the destination.
Yahoo also made some social media part of the Farechase relaunch, as noted in the blog:
You might want to check out other user’s travel plans who are considering staying at the same hotels as you from integration with the Trip Planner beta. This’ll help you get a sense of what other people think of the hotels you’re considering, and you might get some ideas for cool stuff to do on your trip.
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David Utter is a staff writer for murdok covering technology and business.
