Yahoo Launches AJAX-Based Airfare Search

It doesn’t operate on all browsers yet, but Yahoo’s AJAX-based Airfare Search does look pretty cool. In a nutshell, AJAX allows a Web page to load content in real-time instead of having to refresh the page in order to see new information like you need to with HTML. This means that you can watch the fare results coming in realtime.

I tested the search engine on three major flights from my hometown for the week of May 11 to May 18 - Seattle to New York, Seattle to Los Angeles and Seattle to Atlanta - and compared it with the results from Expedia and Orbitz.

Orbitz returned the lowest fares for all three flights: $274 with one stop on Northwest Airlines for the New York trip, $198 with no stops on United Airlines for the Los Angeles trip and $302 with one stop on Northwest for the Atlanta trip.

In terms of ease of interface, the Yahoo engine is by far the nicest. But based on my test, it’s still a good idea to shop around on the other airfare engines before making a purchase.

Via Digg.