Hack Blogspot

Google Inc. plans to buy travel technology company ITA Software Inc. in a $700 million deal that would enable the Internet search leader to steer more of the airline reservations booked on the Web. The all-cash deal announced Thursday signals Google's intention to challenge flight-comparison services that are ITA customers, including Kayak, FareCompare, Hotwire and Microsoft Corp.'s Bing Travel. The deal is likely to face a rigorous review by federal antitrust regulators. "There is clearly more room for competition and innovation" in online travel, Google CEO Eric Schmidt said in a conference call. "We will improve the way flight information is organized." ITA Software, a 500-employee company created in 1996 by computer scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, sells technology that helps run the reservation systems of many airlines, including American, Southwest, Alaska and Continental. Its software also powers the tools that other trav...

I'm sitting on a shady terrace, drinking mint tea, listening to the music of village life and enjoying the breeze. I'm in the Dana Nature Reserve in the mountains of eastern Jordan. Last time I was here it was in December and on the day we went to Petra it snowed - a raging blizzard with howling winds.