Dipping Your Oar In!
by Gary Woods

There are a lot of search engines on the Internet. But unless you're a search engine with a specific niche people are still going to go to Google. One specific niche is travel and while there are some great travel sites like www.orbitz.com and www.travelocity.com I found one called www.kayak.com that I think is very cool.

What they do is help people find travel products from travel suppliers all over the world. They're considered a meta-search engine and that mean their website searches hundreds of other websites in real time for the best travel deals available. Kayak.com lets you look at a full range of airlines, hotels and car rental agencies quickly and efficiently based on the exact criteria that you select.

What Kayak.com is not is a travel agency. There are no fees and they do not sell airline tickets or hotels rooms or rental car reservations. Instead they direct you to other travel sites where you can make those purchases directly. They give you a comprehensive list of travel options really quickly with no biases or hidden agenda.

Okay, that sounds good, but how do they make money from the site? Their primary profit system is from people clicking on the results from their travel partners like airlines, hotels and rental car companies. The bottom line for consumers is that they are not trying to sell you anything. They just give you objective, comprehensive travel information for you to use as you want.

If you have any suggestions or questions for me please drop me a note at garyandlaury@santabarbaraproperties.com or see my column on the Internet at http://www.santabarbaraproperties.com or call me at (805) 729-0910