More than two years ago, Microsoft unleashed its very own search engine into the cyberworld. Given the ease with which one can navigate through its various features, it did not take long for Bing to be embraced by users.
Like any good search engine, Bing has also been keen on expanding its search capacity to accommodate the needs and wants of users. As a result it has introduced a variety of products – Bing Travel being one of them.
So what exactly does Bing Travel do?
In September 2009 blog post General Manager Hugh Crean writes: “It’s a faster way to make more informed travel decisions. Built into Bing are intelligent tools that will quickly and more efficiently help you find what you’re searching for so you can make better choices.” In essence, what he meant was that Bing Travel was developed to be good at two things – provide assistance for efficient itinerary planning and reducing flight costs. How does it do these things? Take a look at the explanation below.
1. Know when to travel. Jetsetters out there or first time fliers will be able to determine the most ideal time to fly out to their desired destination using the Flights and Price Predictor feature. This allows you to view airfare and trip schedules from a hundred airline companies as well as travel agency sites. The price predictor will signal you if fares will go up or down. Finally, you can then narrow down your choices once you have gathered all desired data. When that is done, you can then be taken directly to the supplier you want to purchase the ticket from.
2. Know where to travel. Using Flexible Search, you will be able to view flight patterns and determine which places offer lowest airfare rates on any given day. You can even do a comparison check with the flight rate information a day before.
3. Know how to travel for less. The Airfare Deals feature saves you the hassle of combing the Web for the best travel deals. According to Bing Travel info: “we look at yesterday’s lowest airfares to find the absolute lowest fare between two cities in the next 90 days. We compare that low fare to all the airfares we have on record and let you know if that low airfare saves you $25, $50, or more over the average airline ticket between those cities.”
4. Know the difference between the better and best hotel rates. Unsure on whether you are getting a good rate or not, find out by using the Rate Indicator. It does rate comparisons within the series of days so you will know exactly if you managed to make great savings off your choice of accommodation.
Ideas…ideas…
Apart from being able to make planning for that business trip or much-awaited vacation easier, perhaps the best option that Bing Travel has are the suggestions you would find on the Destinations tab. See the screenshot below.
As you can see, you can just pick out the purpose for an upcoming trip and it will give you recommendations on which places you might want to visit, whether you are an adventure junkie or a wine connoisseur.
Indeed, Bing Travel has a lot more exciting features than the ones I have mentioned here. I have just reacquainted you with the basics. Now, it is up to that explorer in you to discover what else makes this Microsoft service special. For more information, click on this link http://www.bing.com/travel/about/howWorks.do?FORM=TRGRMR.
