Google Flights Introduces New Predictive Flight Information

Google has largely created the infrastructure that we think of as the internet. It has established the way we search, and has succeeded at turning its company name into a verb. Gmail accounts for more than 1 billion monthly active users. Android mobile software is one of the only successfully rivals to Apple’s iOS. Acquisitions like YouTube, which Google bought in 2006 for $1.7 billion, have been cultural game changers before being attached to the Google brand.

Flight of Fancy

In the years since integration in all corners of the web, Google has aimed to intuitively make everyday tasks easier. The company has taken a page out of the Amazon model by creeping in and disrupting the mundane. Google Flights, the company’s online travel assistant, has recently developed more intuitive features in effort to combat the annoyances of modern air travel. The software pulls information directly from the airlines. However, Google has now equipped the feature with an advanced understanding of historical data, using its machine learning algorithms to warn buyers about delays which have yet to be flagged by the airlines.

According to Google, the site’s A.I. algorithm crunches the data provided and uses it to predict delays by running patterns. For instance, weather patterns at certain times of year can be relatively predictable, especially coming out of cities that serve as major travel hubs. Think of Denver, which houses the sixth busiest airport in the United States, with 1,500 daily scheduled passengers. The Denver International Airport is used by twenty-five different commercial airlines. This means that the airport provides a healthy amount of data for Google as it tries to predict when a flight may be delayed, especially when considering the Colorado’s infamous difficult winters.

Keeping Your Flights On Time

Google won’t actually flag any flights as delayed or problematic until it is at least 80% sure that the prediction will come to pass. This means that the technology won’t be helpful during the buying process. 80% confidence requires up-to-the-minute analysis, which will only aide last-minute purchases. However, they will help flyers plan accordingly in the lead-up to their departure, eliminating the element of surprise that awaits if you’re already at the airport.

Additionally, the new Google Flights feature allow travelers to understand what features that Basic Economy provide, a long-standing issue as each airline has its own vernacular and tier system for flyers. Low-cost fares are often the only travel options for last-minute flyers, but the rules and restrictions often vary, such as limits on use of overhead space or the ability to pre-select a seat. This includes the most infamously frustrating, additional baggage fees.

New Industries to Disrupt

These increased features come on the heels of major travel startups that, like all tech disruptors, aim to decrease fuss and increase efficiency. Companies like Hopper have recently added hotel search to their mobile apps, and similarly use big data to analyze airline prices. TripIt, also exclusively developed as an app, introduced a new feature that tells flyers the wait time for security checkpoints.

The wait time feature feels like an inevitable addition to the Google Flights system, especially since Google is already aware of busy times at businesses thanks to its ability to track people through Google Maps. Google is rolling out new features with select airlines, beginning with American, United and Delta worldwide. These changes come only a month after Flights’ last major upgrade, which added price tracking, deals and hotel search.

Google Flights has the potential to be a game changer for one of our more frustrating industries. And beyond that, it offers a new way to think of big data and machine learning. If technology is meant to disrupt the average industry, and make good on decades worth of promise, then matters of convenience are perhaps worth paying attention to.

Never miss another post. Sign up for our weekly 100TB newsletter and follow us on Facebook or Twitter.

Originally published at blog.100tb.com.