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Kayak good target for acquisition by Google, says VentureBeat

December 22, 2009 | Online Travel

VentureBeat includes Kayak in its list of products that are going to be making the biggest waves in 2010, and views the company as a perfect acquistion target for Google.

Kayak, a travel search engine, has done quite well despite lack of a TV marketing campaign so far (it just launched such a campaign) and has grown primarily through search engine marketing and word of mouth. It’s rumored to be going public anytime soon, and even if it doesn’t, it’s a good target for acquisition by Google. Here’s why:

Bing continues to pose a viable threat to Google’s dominance through its recent deal with Yahoo, free Wi-Fi, and a rumored deal with News Corp to block Google from getting access to premium news content such as Wall Street Journal. Bing touts itself as a “decision engine,” which is mostly a marketing gimmick, but has some weight behind it. When you search for SFO to LAX for example, you’ll see ticket fares from Farecast - a travel search engine that Microsoft acquired and integrated with Bing. On Google, however, you’ll see results from online travel agencies such as Expedia as well as travel search engines such as Kayak. So, while on Bing, ticket buyers would essentially stay on a Microsoft property, on Google the same buyers would move on to a new site such as Kayak. Next time they want to search for flights, they would skip Google and go to Kayak directly. This results in loss of traffic for Google, and that’s why Google is likely to buy Kayak.

Get the full story at VentureBeat

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