Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, although on the Web it can be followed by the threat of litigation.
Wired reports that travel search site Kayak.com sent Microsoft a "legal letter" this week based on Microsoft's Bing travel search tool looking too similar to its own. While the Farecast-powered travel search provides differing results from Kayak's, the company is citing its similarity in look and functionality.
A Microsoft spokesperson rebutted the allegation, telling Wired that the latest design was a joint venture with Farecast and the Bing team.
Microsoft redesigned its Farecast travel search engine in conjunction with the launch of Bing.com in late May. Both it and Kayak have the same basic query layout, along with results that can be quickly filtered with sliders and check boxes that sit on the left side of the screen. The two also share certain color patterns and design elements.
That may not be enough to hold up in court though. U.S. copyright law protects creative work that is put in "tangible form." For copied imagery and text that distinction can be easy. However, when it comes to Web design, things begin to get murky. Its defense often relies on the comparison of the code of two sites, as well as the infringement of any company brands or trademarks.
"It is a hard case for Kayak to make because all airline reservation sites look a lot alike--they are trying to convey the same information, so this is not surprising," says Jim DeLong, who is the chairman of the intellectual property practice at Kamlet Reichert's Washington, D.C., office.
"It looks like a legal area called 'trade dress.' And Kayak would be limited to arguing about the use of grey in the left column, and about some of the typography in the same place."
The two sites side by side (click to enlarge)
(Credit: CNET)Travel search remains one of the most profitable parts of Microsoft's search business alongside its local and shopping search engines. Microsoft purchased Farecast in 2008 to boost its profile in the travel search market. It was then integrated deeply into Microsoft's MSN properties, and now Bing.
Other high-profile design similarities in recent history have involved AOL's beta site, which looked suspiciously close to Yahoo's front page; Google's Chrome browser logo; and Croatian Radiotelevision's BBC-like redesign.
Note: This story was updated at 12:07 p.m. PST with comment from Jim DeLong.
Kayak has a new iPhone application that gives mobile users the same travel search tools found on its Web site. The company is pitching it as a way for passengers who have been stranded at an airport to quickly find and book another flight. I look at it as a better way to navigate travel sites that do not play well with the iPhone's sometimes finicky browser, which is nice since Kayak simply pulls all the results together in one place.
At first blush, power users of the site may find the application a bit lacking, but the advanced features lay hidden. For instance, it does not let you filter how many travelers are in your party, or what airlines you'd like to search from. You can, however set these options after the initial search has been done. The same can be done when searching for hotels to narrow down the results by the hotel's star rating. Ideally it would be nice to set these filters ahead of the search, as it could speed things up if you're on a spotty data connection.
Once you've found a ticket you want to buy there are only two ways to do it: either calling up the airline, or buying it through Kayak.com in Safari. This second option is where things really break down since you have to deal with the carrier's interface, which is neither iPhone-friendly, nor a part of the Kayak application. This is too bad since the application could do some handy things like save your credit card information, and turn your newly purchased flight into a calendar event to stick into your phone's calendar.
On the flip-side of that, the app includes one of Kayak's most useful features--its trends reporting. Here, you can tell it what travel route you're contemplating and it shows you what pricing has been like over the past month, and what it predicts it will be in the next two weeks. In my case this got me waiting a week to buy a ticket for an upcoming trip.
There's also a handy listing of each carrier's telephone number in case you need to speak to a human. This is great if you don't feel like looking it up. Included is how many people had searched for flights through that carrier during the past week, which is cute but somewhat useless.
One thing that's sorely missing, and what I hope will be included in a future version is a built-in calendar. For now you have to pick dates from a simple drop-down menu, which is great if you know exactly when you're traveling, but when brainstorming a potential trip it's nice to see the days of the week. Luckily, at the time I was near my desktop computer to give Outlook a quick check, but you're clearly not going to have that when out and about.
See also: Taking travel services into your own hands: Becoming an on-the-go iPhone travel agent
Kayak for iPhone lets you search for flights and hotel reservations on your phone, and check out pricing trends, too.
(Credit: CNET Networks)
As I sat in the back row on a cross-country US Airways flight a few nights ago, with the engine roaring outside the window, the bathroom directly behind me stinking, and unable recline my seat at all, I wondered how I could have avoided the unfortunate situation I was in.
Help is on the way in the form of InsideTrip.com, which launches in beta on Tuesday. The site not only includes JetBlue and Virgin America in its flight results, but it offers an interesting way to help you figure out the best flight taking into consideration things other than price.
For instance, it factors in number of stops, duration, and on-time statistics about the flights, as well as what the security wait time may be, how much legroom you would have, and what percentage of seats are filled. It also looks at how the flights rank for lost bags, where the gate location is, and how long you have to connect to the next flight. That would have been handy for me to know as I had to run to catch my connecting flight to San Francisco across what seemed like the entire Phoenix airport.
The site offers up a Trip Quality Rating and assigns a rating, on a 100-point scale, based on how many of the criteria are met. You can customize the criteria if you don't care about certain things, like aircraft type or aircraft age, and those factors won't be weighed in the results.
There's a fun little visual itinerary bar for the flights too, that allows you to get more details on a flight, say arrival time, by hovering the mouse over it.
There is another site called SeatGuru.com which lets you view the seating on specific airplanes so you can avoid being in the exit aisle or last row, but it doesn't offer all the other features InsideTrip.com does.
I'll definitely give InsiderTrip.com a try before I fly again. But price will still be the biggest factor, unless of course, it's a work trip.
InsideTrip.com helps you find flights based not only price, but also factors related to speed, comfort, and ease including leg room, plane size, and security wait time.
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