Travel

#Microsoft closes Bing flight price predictor, bought the tech from Farecast in 2008

Microsoft is stopping its support for Windows XP and Office 2003 today but the company has also shut down a smaller but interesting service on its Bing Travel site as well. GeeKWire reports that the flight price prediction tool on that site is no longer available.

In a statement sent to the site. a Microsoft spokesperson said the decision to shut down the tool was a business decision to focus resources on areas where we feel there are the greatest opportunities to serve travel needs. What s really interesting about this move is that Microsoft bought the technology behind the tool when it acquired Farecast in 2008 for a rumored $115 million .

The idea behind the tool was that people could use it to see if a future airline flight they were interesting in buying a ticket for might go up or down in price in the near future. The original founder of Farecast, Oren Etzioni, told the site he was sad to learn Microsoft had decided to shut down what he called one of the most distinctive features of Bing.

Travel search site Kayak put in an airline price prediction feature in its service in January 2013. and claimed that it was better than other competing services like Bing. Now that Bing s own prediction tool is shut down it would appear that Kayak has one less competitor in this area.

Source: GeekWire | Image via Microsoft