by Richard Kastelein

OP-ED - Press reports and industry insiders say Google and ITA Software are close to a merger deal, with Google willing to shell out €1 billion for the company, and numerous pundits are citing this as a 'game changer'. ITA's industry leading software is used by companies including Orbitz and Microsoft. And behind the scenes, ITA has developed Needlebase, a means for airlines and other travel companies to pursue add-on services such as tours, event tickets and other destination activities.

Online reports suggest that QPX flight search business may be integrated into Google Search. But will Google also integrate Needlebase? If Google does opt to include it, the dynamics of Internet event ticketing could be greatly affected and companies dependent on Google's current search algorithm architecture may find a new playing ground in the future. 

As a pilot application for Needle, ITA Software has assembled a database of over 60,000 festivals & events, aggregating multiple ticket feeds from sources such as Ticketmaster and Stubhub, as well as web-scraped event listings from hundreds of "long tail" sources such as public community websites, local convention and visitor bureau sites, civic tourism sites, and special-interest sites.  We have also collected a companion database of 75,000 North American tourist attractions from scores of additional websites. 

ITA Software and Google is not a done deal, but Google watchers are saying it's close. Will Google consolidate and create the future dynamic event ticketing space? Needlebase is a small project for ITA and they have not put significant resources behind stimulating Needlebase adoption — but Google might well change that.

One blogger even speculates that Needlebase is the real driver of this potential merger.

Some would look at the obvious ability of Google to simply disintermediate the online travel agencies and even the metasearch players (such as Kayak and Microsoft Bing’s Farechase) with ITA’s QPX product. ITA has been developing this product in stealth mode over the past few years.

“Now, with Needle, we’re aiming to revolutionize other forms of vertical search, too. By dramatically lowering the time and cost required to aggregate a comprehensive database of any domain, we hope to extend our impact beyond air travel to literally any domain where the data is currently too disaggregated, unpolished, or difficult to use efficiently.”

Needlebase is patented by ITA (United States Patent 7668740) which also may play a part, according to on TNA watcher and Academic, Professor Sabena.