"Orbitz Worldwide Inc. has found that people who use Apple 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. The Orbitz effort, which is in its early stages, demonstrates how tracking people's online activities can use even seemingly innocuous information—in this case, the fact that customers are visiting Orbitz.com from a Mac—to start predicting their tastes and spending habits." \\ Avoid getting ripped-off, learn to modify your browser's user_agent variable. - Adriano

Wow. That is not cool. - AJ Batac

Perhaps they are just trying to be helpful and not make more money off their users by limiting their options... but are they completely transparent about it? Can I shut it off? Is it telling me my search has been altered? Will I still have access to the cheaper hotels if that's where I prefer? MUCH prefer a search system goes and finds every match possible for me, then allows me to filter based on my actual preferences rather than their inferred preferences from the little slice of me they feel they know. - SAM

hotel preferences are just an example -- other sites may simply boost their pricing depending on the user_agent, demographic locale of the IP address, or history of previous visits. - Adriano