Google has released a lot of what it considers "beta" products over the years. Most of them were pretty good right out of the gate. In fact, I don't think I have ever tried a new Google app -- beta or otherwise -- that flat-out sucked.
Now I have.
I had high hopes for Google Flights when I saw it. The interface is clean and simple, and it appears to cover the basics. The problem is that this interface is sitting on top of an app that couldn't plan a one-way trip out of a paper bag.
Let's start with the departure and destination cities. Google Flights showed -- correctly -- that I live near Atlanta, Ga. More specifically, I live in Athens, city about 80 miles from Atlanta. Athens has its own small airport; the commuter airlines here serve several other cities in the region, including Atlanta.
I know these flights exist. The other travel-search sites know they exist, too. Google Flights says they don't. Strike One.
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There are some larger airports in the region, too. Greenville-Spartanburg (GSP) for example, is almost as close to Athens as Atlanta is. There's a good-sized regional airport there, and most of the big national airlines serve it.
But when I ask Google Flights to find me a flight from GSP to San Francisco, it once again comes up empty. No direct flights, no connecting flights, no nothing. It had the same problem finding flights -- any flights -- out of Chattanooga, Tenn. and Augusta, Ga. Strike Two.
Google Flights sure can't hit a curveball. So how about a nice slow pitch? I ask it to find a direct flight from Atlanta to San Francisco on Delta Airlines. As airline-search tasks go, this one is about as easy as it gets. Delta is based in Atlanta, and I flew it to San Francisco last year.
Google Flights promptly dropped the ball. Actually, it dropped the ball, kicked the ball into the weeds, and then wandered off into a ditch trying to find the ball.
It did return a long list of Delta Airlines flights. But it ccouldn't tell me how much any of them cost.
Even if I wanted a nasty surprise on my credit card, however, I couldn't book any of these Delta flights directly through Google. The "book" button doesn't work, although there's a link to the Delta home page so that I can start the process from scratch.
Gee, thanks. Strike Three.
As I said, I know that Google likes to go public with what it considers beta releases. But this is different.
There's no mystery here -- Google Flights is a hot mess. It doesn't do most of the things that a flight-search service is supposed to do, and the things it does do aren't done right.
The travel search and booking market is crowded and hightly competitive. There's speculation that Google poses a threat to companies like Priceline and Expedia, and in the long run that's probably true.
But in the short run, Google's foray into travel is comically inept. Check it out if you must, and gawk if you want. Just don't plan to acutally use the thing.
Find Matthew on Twitter: @mckenzie_allbiz.
