I just finished booking my flights and hotel for MPI's World Education Conference later this month when I ran across this little nugget: Orbitz Defends Practice of Showing Mac Users Pricier Hotels. Well, I was on my Mac, but I didn't use Orbitz, and now I'm glad I didn't. From the article:
Mac users who search for hotels on the Orbitz online booking service are initially directed to more expensive hotels than PC users, Orbitz acknowledged last week.
Orbitz defended the practice, saying the travel search engine is simply showing users what it thinks they prefer.
Orbitz Chief Executive Barney Harford said data collected by Orbitz shows that Mac users were 40% more likely than PC users to book four- or five-star hotels.
I'm all for smart data-crunched marketing, but if I'm going to be typecast, I really don't want it to be based on the type of computer I use.