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My only criticism of this article is the vagueness about Orbitz NOT being part of ITA:

"purchase of the flight information software firm ITA, with which it plans to enter the online travel search market occupied by Expedia, Orbitz, Bing and others."

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Orbitz isn't part of ITA. They use ITA, as does Bing and several others, but they aren't part of them. They could potentially switch to SABRE or something else, if Google actually went so far as to pull the rug out from under them.

In fact, Google has stated they intend to maintain ITA's relationships with companies such as Orbitz and Bing: "Google will honor all existing agreements, and we're also enthusiastic about adding new partners." (http://www.google.com/press/ita/comp.html)

Ya, I read that as well. But even if they changed their mind (which is extremely unlikely. Google always seems willing to compete), it wouldn't be the end of all those sites, though it would be a major setback.

Thanks for setting me straight on this.

No problem. The air travel sector is quite complex, so I understand the confusion. I interned at ITA for a summer a few years ago, so I have a little first hand experience with it.

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