I admit it.  I often use Expedia or Travelocity just to find out who flies between two cities or who seems to have the best prices, and then make reservations directly with the airlines. Because my plans change frequently and the early versions of such sites didn't permit changes, I got in the habit of looking but not booking.  Today, I stumbled on www,FareCompare.com a site that's only purpose is to provide information.

 

I only had a few minutes, but I like it.  It's fast and incredibly user-friendly.  Everything seems to be click-able or drag-able.  I already found three features that I like. 

1) Route maps - Tell it a city and it will show you everywhere you can fly  nonstop from there (by continent) on a map.  At the same time, a sidebar shows cheapest prices to each destination.  If you click on one of those destinations, it will give you the option to see the dates/airlines with this cheap fare. 

2) Cheapest flight finder - Tell it a city pair and it will show you a month's calendar and with cheapest possible round-trip fare on each date.  Choose the outgoing date and it will show you a new calendar for the month with the cheapest possible round--trip considering the departure date you selected. 

3) Choose your time finder - Every site lets you say what date/time you want to leave and return.  FareCompare has a slider bar (one of my favorite software tools).  So, you can expand your search an hour at a time to see how many more flights there are or whether the prices are better.

FareCompare also has information for hotels, cars, and cruises.