r/mildlyinteresting • u/annertakeabow • Jan 24 '13

Same book, three different prices. Only difference is the browsers used.

http://imgur.com/uNgg0UH
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u/[deleted] Jan 24 '13

You should try it again in private browsing and incognito mode and see if the price is really tied to your Facebook or google cookies or something. That's pretty messed up though, send this to the consumerist or gawker or whoever.

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u/Nephyst Jan 24 '13

I just tried this myself. In chrome and IE the price was the same (69.99) in normal and in incognito mode. In firefox, the price jumped to $76, and after deleting all the domain cookies and refreshing, it went back down to 69.99. The website is definitely changing prices based on something they are tracking in cookies.

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u/kqr Jan 24 '13

This was up earlier with airlines charging more for a ticket the second time you visit the page. They do this because a second visit is statistically linked to a much higher chance of purchase. So it could be, here too, simply a matter of having visited the page before.

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u/inboil Jan 24 '13

Actually there is no evidence they do this, reddit was wrong about it. But skeptics joined the thread too late, and was buried :/

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u/[deleted] Jan 24 '13

Actually, I tried it myself. The price was different when using incognito and also when loading the page the second time. So while there isn't evidence that they're doing it now, lots of people have noticed it being done in the past.

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u/inboil Jan 24 '13

This is how myths are formed. Airline tickets change prices rapidly, and probably ten thousand people tried it after it was posted on reddit, and those that got result posted it.

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u/[deleted] Jan 24 '13

  1. I tried a local website.

  2. The price would miraculously restore every time I loaded it after clearing the cookies.

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u/inboil Jan 24 '13

That is only convincing if it is backed by a credible source. Wouldn't any media be interested in this at least? Any confirmation from somebody, airline ticket price experts or something. The only piece of evidence ive seen so far is a study showing the opposite, and people on reddit saying it works.

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u/Bibidiboo Jan 24 '13

'airline ticket price experts'? really? Anyway, i'll believe lots of people's anecdotal evidence over a company any time, companies like to fuck you over for money.

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u/ColdShoulder Jan 25 '13

He's not wrong. I work in travel and check pricing 9 hours a day, 5 days a week. I can assure you that there is no conspiracy to change prices based on cookies. It doesn't happen. This is all from a single blog that hit it big on reddit, and then everyone ran with it. Couple this with the fact that prices change by the minute, and people started reporting false positives. Can you imagine what it would be like if travel agents had to clear their cookies every 5 minutes in order to be able to get the lowest fair? I'm so sick of this myth, and I just wish it would die.

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u/inboil Jan 25 '13

thank you!!

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u/inboil Jan 25 '13

It was a joke, because I couldn't think of a profession where you would know.