According to the claims of the Norwalk, Conn.-based travel Web site, Kayak.com, there are notable similarities between the travel web site of the May-launched Microsoft search engine, Bing, and Kayak - the website specializing in discovering the most economical flights.

Going by the Wednesday reports from Wired, the Bing Travel feature has been designed by the Microsoft's 2008-acquired Web travel company Farecast. Wired also reported that Kayak has written a letter to Microsoft highlighting its concerns about "uncomfortably close" similarities between the Kayak website and Bing's travel search capability.

Robert Birge, Kayak's Chief Marketing Officer, said in an email that Kayak is "in discussions" with Microsoft about the contentious issue. Birge said: "We have contacted them through the official channels about concerns about the similarities between Bing and Kayak. From the look and feel of their travel products, they seem to agree with our approach to the market."

In fact, the similarities were noticed by the technology experts as well, who reviewed the Microsoft Bing soon after its launch - both Kayak and Bing Travel have a results page and travel schedule that can be customized by users, who can check tick boxes and move selection sliders!

However, Kayak's claims have been denied by the Bing director Whitney Burke, who said that the similarity allegations pertaining to Bing Travel are "without merit."