Part of what makes the new Bing search engine a “decision engine” is its ability to help you decide what to buy. In this economy, everyone’s looking for the best deal when shopping and nowhere is that more true than when shopping for airline tickets. Thanks to Bing’s inclusion of the technology from the company formerly called Farecast (now owned by Microsoft), the new Bing Travel site can help you find the best price for your ticket. With its Price Predictor technology, Bing can analyze more than 175 billion airfare observations and predict whether the price of a flight is going up or down. It then recommends whether you should buy the ticket now or wait. Along those same lines, Bing’s Rate Indicator technology analyzes historical hotel room rate data to determine whether the current price being offered is a good deal. You can even view the hotels on a map where each is color-coded by the Rate Indicator data. To help you find the best deals, Bing Travel will also show you the best airfare and hotel deals once you enter in your origin city – great for planning spur-of-the-moment getaways where your destination is flexible. Or, if you’re looking for a good deal to a specific locale, you can set up a fare alert that will notify you when prices drop.
