Google introduced a search tool on Tuesday for shopping for flights that pits the popular search engine against sites such as Travelocity and Kayak. Travelers can search for flights at google.com/flights and filter their flight queries by price, airlines and routes. It also has a bar chart showing which travel dates are more expensive to fly. Google has been offering flight schedules since May. Google's move has been expected since it bought flight-data provider ITA Software for $700 million earlier this year. Online travel agencies and so-called meta-search sites such as Kayak vigorously lobbied federal regulators to block the deal, fearing it would pave the way for the tech giant to seamlessly integrate flight searches into its other products and dominate travel shopping. Google's entry into flight shopping will fundamentally change customer experience, travel technology analyst Norm Rose predicts. "This is only the beginning of the transformation of general search into travel search that will save the consumer steps in the travel planning process," he says. Google concedes that its new tool is a work in progress. International flights and small U.S. cities aren't available. Customers wishing to book premium-class tickets will have to look elsewhere.

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