Could ITA Software be getting a bit more consumer-oriented, now that it's almost in Google's clutches?
The Cambridge, Mass., company overhauled its website -- its first redesign since 2007 -- and added sections on Solutions for Travelers, Services and Support and ITA Labs.
The site has a much cleaner look and feel and several sections which have been beefed up or renamed, including Passenger Service System Technology, Data Aggregation [Needle] and OnTheFly [mobile app], are much easier to fathom.
The new Solutions for Travelers section, which supplements Airlines and Travel Distributors under the Solutions tab, covers ITA's revamped Matrix flight search for consumers and the company's new OnTheFly mobile app.
ITA long had the original Matrix version on its website for demonstration purposes so consumers could try out its flight search technology, although they couldn't book anything there.
OnTheFly is Google's -- I mean ITA's -- first mobile app, and could be a not-so-subtle hint about more consumer-oriented products to come, if regulators approve Google's proposed $700 million purchase of ITA.
Like Kremlin watchers of old, ITA watchers will note that there is a lot more room in the layout under Travelers to fill in new consumer-oriented solutions in the future.
In other words, design-wise there is plenty of more space for consumer-product rollouts.
Another section that needs some filling out on the ITA Software website is the PSS section, which has no case studies since ITA doesn't have any publicly announced customers signed up for its airline reservation systems solution.
It's still unclear, if the deal goes through, what Google's stance will be toward ITA's foray into the airline reservations system business. Air Canada had been a signed customer, but withdrew after several years of development, citing the airline's own financial problems.
For the website overhaul, ITA says it handled the design and content work in-house, and farmed out some tasks to a Web development company to build out html pages.