Expedia News

Terry Jones and Rich Barton, the founders of Travelocity and Expedia, respectively, offer verdicts on what were once hot-button issues, as well as lessons for travel startups and more mature companies, as well.

In a few years, the streamlined, cross-platform searching that Hipmunk and Expedia are creating will be taken for granted because any company worth anything will have to offer it. So far Hipmunk Anywhere is more intuitive than Expedia's Scratchpad with fewer clicks or taps, but these are very early days.

The fast bookers are going to be enabled more and more by mobile and continued evolution of efficient metasearch technologies. And understanding the behaviors of intensive researchers can help make user experience on online research and booking tools a lot better.

It is almost impossible to imagine that TripAdvisor wouldn't find an online travel agency partner for a Book TripAdvisor option within its mobile apps, but lots of the usual suspects are wary about TripAdvisor getting closer to the transaction part of the travel cycle, and getting even more powerful in the process.

To borrow an immortal line ... There is no joy in Mudville -- mighty Travelocity has struck out.

Expedia is going to ride Trivago until the last bull has left the arena, and it is putting a lot of digital marketing money behind its prize, particularly in Eastern Europe.

While some erroneously looked to Expedia to take tours and activities mainstream, Groupon, if it survives, is making the first move.

Priceline's Booking.com has been conquering the world, often at Expedia's expense, but let's score one for Expedia. Its Expedia Unpublished Rates product has been kicking butt, and stealing share from Priceline's Name Your Own Price since last 2011.

Groupon and Expedia have downgraded their partnership. Whether it was a mutual decision as both parties claim or push came to shove, it was clear that these two big brands weren't going to smoothly co-exist forever.

An outsider might think the U.S. online travel market is already saturated, but Booking.com is proving that there is plenty of room to grow in the U.S., and competitors are feeling the heat.