Expensive browsing
June 27, 2012 Leave a comment
A few links have come my way recently on using internet browsers to price discriminate.
Via Cheap Talk, from the WSJ:
Orbitz Worldwide Inc. has found that people who use Apple Inc.’s Mac computers spend as much as 30% more a night on hotels, so the online travel agency is starting to show them different, and sometimes costlier, travel options than Windows visitors see. Orbitz executives confirmed that the company is experimenting with showing different hotel offers to Mac and PC visitors, but said the company isn’t showing the same room to different users at different prices.
Via Marginal Revolution, from this blog, interest rates from Capital One if using Chrome:
But if using Internet Explorer, you’ll be left wondering what’s left in your wallet:
And a story here this retailer explicitly charging users more for using older versions of web browsers:
Along with the story that “Users of the most popular web browser, Internet Explorer, tend to have lower-than-average IQ, according to a survey of online habits”, reported across much of the mainstream press last year, that was subsequently shown to be a hoax.
Marc Gawley 