Travel planning with Yahoo! Messenger
May 15, 2007 on 9:03 am | In Features | 5 Comments
The internet has changed how we book travel but one thing that hasn’t been solved is how two people can plan trips together online – until now. With the new Yahoo! Flight Planner plug-in, you and a friend can look up flights together right in the IM window. It’s powered by Yahoo! Farechase, one of the best online sources for great deals on flights.
My friend Amy and I have been thinking about a trip to London, so I IM’d her and invited her to try the plug-in. A window opened up next to our conversation, displaying a flight search box. I entered our destination, London, preferred travel dates and hit the search button, all with Amy looking on from her own computer.
Search results quickly appeared and we began browsing through flight options. Amy realized we wanted nonstop flights only, so from her side, she selected the ‘Refine Results’ option and made sure only nonstop flights would appear in the results. As soon as I found a good flight, I clicked the “Chat About It” button, which automatically sent the details to Amy for consideration:
There are also some handy features like selection indicators. Everytime Amy would click a flight she liked, a thumbs up icon would appear next to it so I knew instantly what she preferred. And when I clicked the “Book it” button, it launched a new browser window with the first step of checkout, and sent Amy an IM message from me that started with “I want to book this flight…”.
The next time you need to arrange a flight with a friend or just want their input on your summer travel plans, invite them to use the Yahoo! Flight Planner plug-in on Messenger. Plug-ins are available for the Windows version of Yahoo! Messenger (8.1).
…Speaking of traveling, Lee Hsien Loong, the prime minister of Singapore, visited Yahoo! headquarters last week. Our own Matthew Skyrm was lucky enough to demonstrate some of our Messenger products to Mr. Loong, like Yahoo! Messenger for the Web, as well as some that are in development like Yahoo! Messenger for Windows Vista. Head over to the NBC11 website to see a short video clip of the visit (enter “Singapore” in the Search Videos box to access the video clip).
Sarah Bacon
Product Manager
Hi Sarah,
I know this message isn’t exactly on the article topic but I couldn’t find your email address.
I noticed AOL is currently planning to offer educational content, in the way of SAT prep materials, to students via an IM ‘bot’ interface in AIM. I was wondering if Yahoo would be interested in something similar to this? I current run a website, http://www.satprepplan.com, that offers free SAT prep materials such as practice test questions etc. I could easily re-purpose the content to work over IM and was wondering if Yahoo would be interested in working with me towards that end?
Cheers,
Kyle
Comment by Kyle — May 16, 2007 #
Hi Kyle,
Sounds like a great idea for a plug-in! Our plug-in platform is open to outside developers. You can find out more about it at:
http://developer.yahoo.com/messenger/
Thanks,
Sarah Bacon
Comment by Administrator — May 16, 2007 #
Hello Sarah,
Is there a way to have a word with you by email?It’s about translating Yahoo Messenger into Persian (Farsi) Language.
Cheers,
Ahmad
Comment by Ahmad — May 16, 2007 #
chúc mừng bạn đã có một trang web mới ^_^
Comment by beba — May 19, 2007 #
một ngày mới thích những bạn mới cái gì cũng mới mới hoàn toàn mới tất nhiên là bây giờ ko thích chat nữa
Comment by beba — May 19, 2007 #