FareFinder Extra: Yahoo! drops FareChase

Travel Weekly is reporting that Yahoo! will scrap its travel-metasearch product FareChaser and instead defer its booking to Travelocity.

As stated in the article:

(I)n late February Yahoo signed a new agreement that has Travelocity continuing its role as the primary booking engine for Yahoo Travel. In the past, Travelocity sparred with Yahoo over the prominent role that Yahoo gave FareChase on Yahoo Travel.

FareChase, which Yahoo! acquired in 2004, was the forerunner of a host of metsearch products related to travel, namely TripAdvisor, Travelzoo and Kayak. Yahoo said the move will allow it to "focus our efforts on strategic products such as Yahoo Travel Guides and Yahoo Trip Planner."

Travel-related metasearch is beginning to take off, and to see Yahoo! drop its bid to cash in on this growing market is an interesting development, considering that more and more people are using the Internet to find the most affordable deals.

Free Southwest Wifi During Beta Testing

In case you didn't need another awesome reason to get out of your chair and hop on an airplane, Southwest announced today that their in-flight wireless internet connection will be FREE during their beta testing (via Gizmodo).

Operated by Westlake Village, Calif.-based technology firm Row 44, the new Wi-Fi system will be tested for "the next few months," the company said. 

"Internet connectivity has been high on our list of priorities for quite some time," says Dave Ridley, senior vice president of marketing for Southwest Airlines, in a statement. 

As it should be -- it's amazing to me how we've come so far, technologically speaking (we put a man on the moon, man!), yet wireless internet is not easily accessible on airplanes yet. 

But hey, one small step for mankind, right? At least this one's free.

Speech Recognition: American Airlines Goes High-Tech

American Airlines announced today that it will be adding speech recognition technology for its frequent travelers.

The technology, provided by Microsoft affiliate Tellme, will recognize AAdvantage members' phone numbers and greet them by name when they call to make a reservation. The system also automatically offers gate and flight information.

The technology is designed to save the airline money by reducing the need for employees to handle customer calls, although American spokesman Charley Wilson said the intent was to improve customer service, not cut jobs.

Other companies like Domino's Pizza have already utilized Tellme's technology to reduce the cost of training new operators and reducing the number of calls that need to be handled by a real person. While customers will no doubt enjoy the convenience of the new technology, it's unclear yet what lays in store for American Airlines phone operators.

For the record, despite American Airlines billing this as speech recognition, it's really just phone number recognition. If you're interested in learning about real airline technologies, check out American Airlines C.R. Smith Museum of aviation in Dallas, T.X.

British Taxi Cabs Via Satellite

You may already know that we heart sped up, satellite views of stuff moving across the globe. And now, the BBC brings us a lovely little expose on the taxi cab congestion in London. Although, I'll have to admit that it doesn't look that bad.

Seriously, if they did this for New York City, people would be dropping left and right from epileptic seizures.

Newark Airport Is Going to Trust the Googles and Start Using Satellites to Land Planes

Landing planes is a serious business. That's why so many people -- from the pilot to the guys with the bright orange glowing thunder stick things to the people I presume live up in the tower and tell the planes where to go -- are involved in the process.

But Newark Airport is going to take a bold step towards the future and decide to trust technology when it comes to guiding these huge winged chunks of metal onto a tiny concrete strip by implementing satellite technology.

The new technology, known as the Ground Based Augmentation System (GBAS), will enable planes to fly closer together and land more efficiently, without affecting safety, said the port authority. The new technology is particularly beneficial when planes are landing in low-visibility conditions, added the airport operator.

Radar is inefficient at busy airports because of the length of spacing necessary between planes, the port authority said.

And in doing so, it will cost only ... $2.5 million! Actually, that's kind of a steal -- provided there's no government bailout involved. On the same note though, do any of us really want less space between planes, simply based on the principle of trying to be "more efficient" (read: make more money for the airlines while pretending to be consumer friendly)? Because as much as I like getting places faster, I'm not a huge fan of rear ending another airplane. So, yeah, note to self: don't fly through Newark for the next 75 years.