Word: etzioni
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There are plenty of good travel sites, so any new entry needs to have a better idea. Farecast.com uses fearsome computer power to predict the direction of plane fares. That helps travelers figure out the optimum time to buy a ticket. It was founded by Oren Etzioni, who created the Web's first meta-search site (it scans multiple search engines) and first shopping-comparison tool. Farecast uses an algorithm to crunch 100 billion prices in its database, then evaluates 200 attributes that affect plane fares. From those trillions of combinations, it figures out whether you should buy a ticket...
...Etzioni originally dubbed the site Hamlet after its To Buy or Not to Buy motto. Net squatters wanted $100,000 for the hamlet.com address, though, so the outfit instead bought the more logical farecast.com for small change. In the Web's early days, it was SOP to pay millions for addresses like business.com No more. "In the '90s, start-ups were drinking Kool-Aid," Etzioni says. "Now we're drinking coffee...
Will Farecast soon land in the lap of Expedia or Travelocity? Etzioni and CEO Hugh Crean insist that they are building an independent company that can earn profits on ads (for hotel rooms, for instance) and by taking a cut of tickets bought through links on the site. But Etzioni admits the chances Farecast will end up in the hands of a Web giant within five years or so are about 50-50. CNBC pundit Jim Cramer scoffs at start-ups like Farecast as sizzle without substance. "It's like, so what? I could do that company," he says. Among...
...idea is that Google wants to organize your life, not just your information, says Oren Etzioni, a professor of computer science at the University of Washington who has consulted for the company on tech development. "In starting up services that haven't been at the core of their business, Google is experimenting to see if they can expand your everyday interaction with them," he says...
That is the question that vexes travelers seeking air tickets--buy, or wait in hope of a price drop? Thanks to computer scientist Oren Etzioni, an answer may be just a few mouse clicks away. Etzioni's site Farecast.com original name was, of course, Hamlet--provides the lowest fare on a route, a 90-day price history and, using a novel predictive algorithm, a tip to "buy now" or "wait," along with a figure indicating how confident Farecast is in its advice. (Flyers buy directly from the airlines.) Boston and Seattle are currently the only searchable points of origin...