Anti-screen scrape
Normal service on the blog resumes after a hectic few days at the UK's Travel Technology Show.
A wide variety of comments and posts were left on the special blog we created.
But none more so that this from Andrew Knott, Global Travel Group's IT director.
He suggests we might see the likes of EasyJet and Ryanair putting one of the those funny words, known as a captcha [thanks Darren Cronian], for users to type before getting into price and availability.
Perhaps simple and effective. But equally rather far-fetched and even the threat of it would undoutbedly send the usability experts into fits of disgust.
Kevin May, editor, Travolution
4 comments:
Kev,
Do you mean Captcha?
That would drive consumers nuts too, why would they possibly want to add verfication?
To stop bots stealing content for meta search?
Kev,
Do you mean Captcha?
That would drive consumers nuts too, why would they possibly want to add verfication?
To stop bots stealing content for meta search?
Darren: yes, to stop the bots.
and i agree. absurd idea really...
But these LCAs dont like screen scapers (like Skyscanner) as it helps the consumer compare prices across routes and carriers and for them this is a threat.
The next stage would then be to enter into talks and 'license' their fare search to third party meta sites, such as the one mentioned above. The margins are so thin within the LCAs especially with rising commodity prices and tighter regulations that they need to consider any new revenue stream.
Customers are used to adding verification such as Captcha, especially in online transactions. This very site uses this and we are getting more and more used to it so i dont think it would be too much of a barrier to them. It wouldnt be to me.
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