Google just launched Google Flights Search, an attractive, intuitive, lightning fast airline search tool; it may well be your new default destination when you're looking for a flight.
We're big fans of previously mentioned Hipmunk (and we'll always have a soft spot for Kayak,) but Google Flights has come out swinging. The search results are nearly instantaneous (most travel sites make you slog through the "searching airlines" intermediary screen); results display on a Google Map in a way that's actually useful; it's got an impressive, easy-to-use interface; and it also includes powerful filtering tools to help you find tickets matching preferences like non-stop, duration, price, and especially handy, a tool to help you find the cheapest flight by duration when you've got flexible travel dates. After a few initial comparisons, Google Flights Search also looks like it's returning the same "lowest fare" as sites like Hipmunk.
Update: Contrary to my experience, I've seen a lot of people saying Hipmunk is still returning lower fares. Several readers have also noted that Google Flights Search isn't showing a lot of cities (sometimes they're cities that I'm seeing, so it could possibly be launch hiccups). It seems likely that these issues will improve in time, but it certainly bodes will for Hipmunk.
The upshot: It's impressively intuitive, extremely fast, and though I hate to say it, I can see Google's new flight search becoming a lot of people's first destination for finding airline tickets online.
Google Flights | via Search Engine Land
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