Bing taps Kayak for its travel search

Microsoft announced today that it has entered into a partnership with travel search tool Kayak to bring flight search results to Bing users in the U.S.

Now, when users do a flight search, it will be grabbing results from what Microsoft says is a larger set of flights than what was previously available. That new data will begin appearing in results in "the coming weeks," said Krista Pappas, Bing's global travel industry director , in a blog post today announcing the partnership.

"For Bing, this means we can focus our development resources on delivering even more unique and valuable features for customers," Pappas said. "In essence, this lets us do more for our customers as we continue to invest in next-generation travel experiences."

Just a week ago Microsoft had introduced an auto-suggest feature that would display flight prices before users even completed typing in their query. The technology would find out where a user was accessing Bing, and chart the search from the nearest airport.

Readers with good memories might also remember that Kayak has what can be described as an interesting history with Bing. Shortly after Farecast--which Microsoft had acquired--was transitioned into Bing Travel, Kayak accused Microsoft of lifting its design. At the time, Microsoft had rebutted the allegations. That now appears to be water under the bridge, with the two companies partnering up.

Kayak is in the midst of moving toward its IPO, having filed papers in November. The company is also a member of the Fair Search group, which is a coalition of travel companies that have banded together against Google's still-pending $700 million acquisition of online travel firm ITA software. Microsoft joined Fair Search in early December.