Specialty Search Tools: Travel: An Intro to Farecast
Mr. Battelle introduces Farecast, a new service, still in private beta (you can register) that promises to help consumers decide the best time to purchase a plane ticket. Something we all know is almost impossible is finding THE lowest fare. Sounds very interesting and useful if it works. If it also sounds like something you’ve heard before (in terms of the concept), you are correct. Back in 2003, Oren Etzioni, at the University of Washington was building a tool called “Hamlet.” Not sure if this technology or concepts power Farecast. I don’t think Hamlet ever made it to the end user. This Wired article has more on and Etzioni’s 2003 effort along with comments from travel professionals, who at that time, seemed skeptical. Stay tuned!
See Also: An 2003 NBC News Segment About Hamlet and Dr. Etzioni (WMV File)
See Also: Dr. Etizioni’s Research Paper: To Buy or Not to Buy: Mining Airline Fare Data to Minimize Ticket Purchase Price (Direct to Paper: PDF; 10 pages)
See Also: How to Rumble the Airlines (via BusinessWeek 4/21/2003)
See Also: More on Hamlet: Airfare fluctuations launch startup that predicts prices (via Seattle Post-Intelligencer (October 8, 2004)
Postscript: Why was it called Hamlet? “To Buy or Not to Buy” was their motto.

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