Google 'Hotel Finder' launched

After purchasing a leading flight software company earlier this year, Google has launched a new tool for finding hotels.

Called the Hotel Finder, the tools is an "experimental search tool" designed to help users locate and book hotels.

Hotel Finder, which is restricted to the United States for now, lets a user refine their choice by geographic area using Google Maps and select hotels using various criteria including price, the number of stars and user ratings. The tool also allows users to create a "shortlist" of options before deciding to book a hotel directly or through online companies such as Priceline, Travelocity, Expedia or Hotels.com.

In recent times, Google has focused its attention to the travel sector -- the lucrative online travel market. In April this year, Google acquired flight data company ITA Software, for $700 million. The acquisitions was opposed by online travel companies like Travelocity, fearing unfair competition; but US justice department finally gave approval to the acquisition, by placing several restrictions on the search giant, one among them was Google notably agreeing to let ITA customers extend their contracts into 2016. --------

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