[Sigia-l] Do Make Me Think!

[Skot Nelson]

On Oct-15-2006, at 17:32 , Malahat Hosseini wrote:

> I want to go to trip with this ( x) budget any time in fall...I  
> dont want to
> give you a fixed date... I just want to see whatever you have and  
> pick...
>
>
> is this a rare case? :)

No, but I think that the problem here is a slightly different one:  
how to deal with "fuzzy" queries. I do agree that the inability to  
query  travel sites in seemingly natural ways is a problem.

That's both a technological and an architecture issue.

On the architecture side of things, how you structure queries and  
present responses will play a hugely significant role.

On the technology side, the needs here are quite interesting. Travel  
sites get most the information that they sell and redistribute from  
external sources. There's no such thing as "inventory" in most  
case....Expedia doesn't have 5 trips to Mexico sitting on a shelf,  
and what they do have changes from moment to moment. A seat on KLM is  
available now but...ooops....now it's gone.

So the travel sites themselves may benefit from some impression  
ability to deal with "soft" queries, but the people providing their  
"inventory" require absolute precision -- it's a fun conflict.
--
Skot Nelson
skot (at) penguinstorm (dot) com
http://www.penguinstorm.com/

skype. skot.nelson

	"In anything at all, perfection is finally attained not when
	 there is no longer anything to add, but when there
	 is no longer anything to take away."
	-- Antonine de Saint-Exupéry, Wind, Sand and Stars