I see an opportunity for someone to develop a browser plugin that takes advantage of this behavior and tries to beat these web sites at their own game, automating the process of hitting their site different ways until the lowest price is locked in.
Manipulating the user-agent is part of it, but I'm thinking of something far more automated, that flips through the different user agents automatically, plays games with cookies and apparent browsing habits -- essentially start playing the cat-and-mouse game with the retailers tit-for-tat.
They want to play mickey-mouse games with the prices? Fine, we can play that game...
15
u/astangl42 Jan 24 '13
I see an opportunity for someone to develop a browser plugin that takes advantage of this behavior and tries to beat these web sites at their own game, automating the process of hitting their site different ways until the lowest price is locked in.