Posted: Thu Jan 26, 2006 6:43 pm Post subject: Kayak.com launches first travel bot: KayakBot
Kayak.com, the leading travel search engine, today becomes the first travel site to launch bot functionality.
KayakBot is an innovative fare search feature that lets travelers search prices and availability for air, hotel, rental cars and flight status directly from their AOL Instant Messenger and without the inconvenience of launching an Internet browser screen.
As with other bots, KayakBot responds to simple commands, “fly”, “room”, “status”, airport codes and numerical dates. Interested in a trip to San Francisco from Boston? Simply type “fly bos 2/20 to sfo 2/28” in your AIM window to execute a Kayak.com search for flights from Boston to San Francisco on February 20, returning February 28.
“Instant Messaging has become a part of any Internet user’s daily routine for everything from communicating with colleagues to checking a stock price, but until now, that didn’t include the ability to easily search for travel,” said Paul English, CTO and co-founder of Kayak.com. “KayakBot is the latest of many recent innovative features that Kayak.com has introduced to make travel search a convenient and interactive experience for online travelers.”
Users can download the KayakBot from www.kayak.com and/or simply add it to their AIM Buddy List by selecting “Add a Buddy” and typing in “KayakBot.”
About Kayak.com
Created by co-founders of Orbitz, Travelocity and Expedia, Kayak.com is a comparison-shopping Web site that helps consumers make informed decisions in their travel planning. The site, which launched February 7, 2005, offers a comprehensive search engine that scours over 100 travel sites, providing prices and itineraries for hundreds of airlines, more than 103,000 hotels and all leading rental car companies. Kayak.com is the first to integrate consumer and professional reviews and other relevant travel information with real-time prices and availability. Kayak.com’s investors include Sequoia Capital, America Online, Inc. and General Catalyst Partners. For more information, please visit www.kayak.com.
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