Bing Deals

Feature 1: Bing has launched Bing Deals for the desktop and mobile, with access to more than 200,000 offers from Groupon, Living Social and Restaurant.com. Bing partnered with The Dealmap to launch this service.

Users of Bing’s mobile app will now see a tab for ‘Deals’ which lists the top deals from nearby retailers with a single click. Users can also browse deals by keyword or categories like restaurants, hotels and accommodations, nightlife and movie theaters.

Prior to this announcement, Bing had also announced an upgrade to Bing Travel. Flight search on Bing now offers “Price Predictors” with an autosuggest feature.

If you type in a query like “Chicago flights,” Bing will recognize your location and display the best price deal over a 90-day period.

Bing launches deals - Bing.com
NY Times launches Daily Deal site - Mediapost
Bing welcomes new technology partner for flight search - Bing.com
Bing Travel’s new autosuggest flight prices - Bing.com

Feature 2: Central reservation system operator Pegasus has confirmed that it is working with Google to include direct links to suppliers for hotel pricing and booking in Google Maps. Google has until now listed pricing from only online travel agencies (OTAs) alongside queries on Google Maps.

Pegasus also says it is about to launch a tool offering the same functionality for meta-search sites. Google collects based on a pay-per-click model, with each click reportedly worth between 50 cents to $2. If the user books a room, Google gets a larger fee based on the booking amount.

Hoteliers on board with new Google features - HNN
Pegasus, Google team to offer direct links for hotel bookings - Travel Weekly

Here’s the rest of the week’s interesting news:-

#smtravel11: EyeforTravel Social Media Strategies conference twitter transcript - wthashtag
#smtravel11: Driving social media ROI for airlines, airports and travel businesses - Simpliflying
#smtravel11: Create Compelling Content - Social Media with Karen
#smtravel11: 27 social media marketing ideas for 2011 - HotelMarketingStrategies

Allegiant proposes new airfare that changes before the date of travel - Elliot.org
High oil price cuts airline profits by almost 50 percent to $8.6 billion - IATA

Amadeus issues the first EMD in an IATA BSP - IATA
Sabre signs new agreement with US Airways - UpTake

DEMO: Charter a private jet with FlyRuby - VentureBeat
Location-based audio startup Broadcastr launches public beta - Broadcastr.com
Telepresence robot makes waves at tech fair - AFP (also see Anybots QB robot)

UK travel industry launches “Fair Tax on Flying” Facebook campaign - ABTA
Europe aviation industry to test volcanic-ash response system - WSJ

Delta tops Fortune magazine’s list of most admired airline industry companies - Fortune
Marriott tops Fortune magazine’s list of most admired hotel companies - Fortune

Yahoo! media manager battles British Airways bedbugs - FishbowlLA
Entrepreneur creates green bedbug spray - Reuters

iPad 2: Top 5 benefits for business travellers - Aussie Business Traveler
FAA approves iPads for pilots’ electronic charts - CNN

Related posts:-
TravelTechnology Weekly – Search Wars on Travel Terrain
Google Testing Hotel Price Display on Google Maps
TravelTechnology Weekly – Groupon Takes to the Skies, Hotel Booking Tech…