airline

Kayak Will Now Compete Directly With Expedia by Launching New Hotel Booking Option

Tricia Duryee in Commerce on March 14, 2011 at 5:45 am PT

Kayak.com is now giving its customers the option to book a hotel room directly through its Web site. In doing so, it now competes with the hundreds of travel sites it compares on a regular basis, such as Hotels.com, Hotwire, Priceline and Expedia.

Government May Sue Google to Block ITA Deal

Arik Hesseldahl in Enterprise on January 13, 2011 at 12:00 pm PT

After six months of waiting for approval, Google invoked a law that requires the government to decide on its proposed acquisition of ITA within 30 days. Department of Justice lawyers are readying legal papers just in case.

Shopkick Checks In With Target–CEO Cyriac Roeding Talks About Social Shopping

Kara Swisher in News on November 16, 2010 at 10:28 am PT

The idea of being rewarded for being a consumer is getting a lot of heat of late, as retailers seek to take advantage of the fast-moving social phenom among consumers, especially young ones. Thus, a wide range of efforts to combine location-based mobile apps with purchasing, both online and offline. Today, another company in the space, shopkick, announced it had added another store–Minneapolis-based Target–to its list of retailers deploying its platform and mobile app that gives you points for simply walking in a store.

Meet the Yahoo Board: Something Old, Something New–But Will They Do Something?

Kara Swisher in News on October 14, 2010 at 9:00 am PT

With all the noisy swirl around Yahoo of late–from its executive turmoil to its flat growth to its dashed partnerships in Asia to its brash CEO–its board has been unusually quiet of late. Comatose, some might say. But with private equity firms, media companies, Web rivals, big shareholders, Wall Street and others all machinating about trying to grab all or some of the Internet giant, it will be interesting to see if its directors will shake themselves out of their typical comfort zone of inactivity to actually do their job. Thus, time for their moment in the BoomTown spotlight!

Web Meme: BoomTown and the Internet Is on #TeamSlater and His Inflatable-Slide Rage

Kara Swisher in News on August 10, 2010 at 8:15 am PT

The story of JetBlue flight attendant Steve Slater–who, after being abused by a passenger, did a full “Norma Rae” and huffed off the airplane via an inflatable slide–spread like wildfire across the Internet yesterday, almost immediately after the incident occurred. It’s too much to hope that someone on the flight had a Flip camera and is uploading the incident on YouTube right now, but video was unnecessary after the tale of flight rage got out and details piled upon details. This is just the kind of silly, but true-to-life, story that everyone loves to share, and share it they did, with #teamslater quickly gaining ground on Twitter, and online comments and news stories exploding.

Skype on a Plane? Please Don’t.

Peter Kafka in Media on March 11, 2010 at 1:46 pm PT

More and more airlines are adding wireless, which means you can now turn your seat into a flying videoconference room. But you shouldn’t.

Almost Famous: Mehdi Maghsoodnia of BookRenter

Drake Martinet, Intern, All Things Digital in News on March 5, 2010 at 1:35 am PT

This week: We took a coffee break with Mehdi Maghsoodnia, CEO over at Bookrenter.com. In Web 1.0 style, they do what their name suggests–rent textbooks to students and try to compete with school bookstores, Amazon, and a certain egg-themed competitor. Chegg it out.

United Might Break Guitars and the Funky Wedding Video Has Buzz, But Will It All Have a Susan Boyle Ending?

Kara Swisher in News on August 6, 2009 at 8:30 am PT

Oh, who doesn’t just love, love, love the two latest viral videos to hit the Web–“United Breaks Guitars” and the joyful wedding dance of Minnesotans Jill and Kevin? Combined, they have more than 20 million views on YouTube. While that’s all well and good, like a lot of these kinds of viral phenoms, neither is likely to make much money and become more than watercooler wonders.

This Is Your Captain Speaking: Will the Gentleman in Seat 21A Please Stop Surfing Porn

John Paczkowski in News on September 12, 2008 at 11:33 am PT

Now that air-to-ground broadband has added Internet porn to American Airlines’ in-flight entertainment offerings, the company’s flight attendants are asking that it be taken off. The Association of Professional Flight Attendants, which represents 19,000 AA employees, is urging the airline to block access to Web content it feels is family-unfriendly.