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【Some Websites Judge You by the Kind of Computer You Use】
TEXT:This is the VOA Special English Technology Report.
這里是美國之音慢速英語科技報道。
Last week, the Wall Street Journal had a report about the online travel company Orbitz. The news
paper said Orbitz shows Mac users higher-priced travel choices at the top of search results than users of Windows. The company began doing this after research suggested that people who use Mac computers spend up to thirty percent more for hotels than people with PCs.
上周，《華爾街日報》發(fā)表了一份關(guān)于在線旅游公司Orbitz的報道。該報稱，Orbitz在搜索結(jié)果頂部對Mac用戶展示的旅游產(chǎn)品的價格此Windows用戶更高。在研究人員表明使用Mac電腦的用戶比使用普通電腦的用戶在酒店消費上高出30%以上之后，該公司就開始這樣做。
Cameron Yuill is chief executive of a digital media and technology company called AdGent. He is also a former employee of Orbitz. He says this kind of marketing is just another example of how the Internet is influencing the way companies target consumers.
Cameron Yuill是一家名為AdGent的數(shù)字媒體和科技公司的首席執(zhí)行官，他也是Orbitz的前雇員。他說，這種營銷只是互聯(lián)網(wǎng)如何影響公司挑選目標消費者方式的另一個例子。
CAMERON YUILL: "Mac users tend to be more affluent than PC users, so why not target them with the messages that are going to resonate with them?"
CAMERON YUILL：“Mac用戶往往比普通電腦用戶更富裕，所以為什么不針對他們提供能夠讓他們產(chǎn)生共鳴的信息呢？
This kind of price discrimination is also known as dynamic pricing. Mr. Yuill says it is a very common marketing tool, especially in the travel industry.
這種價格歧視也稱為動態(tài)定價。Yuill先生說，它是一個非常普遍的營銷工具，尤其是在旅游行業(yè)中。
CAMERON YUILL: "Next time you’re on a flight, ask the person next to you what they paid for their ticket. And I guarantee it is not the same, the same dollars that you paid for yours. If you’re traveling at a certain period of time, or you’re a business traveler or you bought your ticket last minute, you will always get charged more."
CAMERON YUILL：“你一次搭乘飛機時，問問你旁邊的乘客的機票價格。我保證它是不一樣的。如果你在某個特定時間出行，或者你是商務旅客，又或者你最后時刻才買的機票，你總是會被收取更多的錢。”
Companies have always gathered information about their customers. But now they have a lot more ways to do it. Eric Martin is a partner at Boost Partners, a management consulting company. He says the Internet has increased the amount of data that companies can collect.
各個公司一直在收集有關(guān)其客戶的信息，但現(xiàn)在他們有更多的方式去做。Eric Martin是Boost Partners這家管理咨詢公司的一名合伙人。他說，互聯(lián)網(wǎng)增加了各種公司能夠收集的數(shù)據(jù)的總量。
ERIC MARTIN: "Technology is creating an environment where your searches, your online behavior, leads the seller to know much more about you than would, for instance, a retailer when you walked into their store."
ERIC MARTIN：“科技正在創(chuàng)建這樣一種環(huán)境，你的搜索，你的網(wǎng)上行為讓賣家對知道更多關(guān)于你的信息。例如，它會超出你走進一家商店時零售商對你的了解?！?/span>
A salesperson in a store can only assume certain things about you based on your appearance. Online sellers, however, have far more information to work with. Eric Martin says this includes information about which website directed you to them.
一家商店的營業(yè)員只能根據(jù)你的外表推測一些關(guān)于你的事情。然而，網(wǎng)上賣家擁有更多關(guān)于你的信息可以利用。Eric Martin說，這包括來自網(wǎng)站獲取的信息。
ERIC MARTIN: "Which has a bearing on how they view you as a customer and what your buying habits might be. The people that you deal with you online can’t see you at all physically. But they know that, for instance, when you came to Orbitz you may have been directed there by Kayak, which is itself a comparison site, which then may lead Orbitz to believe that you’re searching for deals."
ERIC MARTIN：“這會影響到你作為客戶，他們?nèi)绾慰创?，以及你可能的購物習慣。與你在線交易的賣家沒法看到你本人，但他們知道，例如，你可能是通過Kayak訪問到Orbitz，Kayak本身是一個比較網(wǎng)站，這可能會使Orbitz認為你在尋求交易?！?/span>
Information about the referring site is only one of the things that a site like Orbitz will consider. Is the person a return visitor? Which hotels has this person viewed in the past? Websites collect this kind of information by placing small files known as cookies on a person's computer.
關(guān)于網(wǎng)站的信息只是Orbitz這類網(wǎng)站會考慮的事情之一。這個人是不是回訪者？他過去看過哪些酒店？網(wǎng)站通過在用戶電腦上放置一個被稱為Cookie的小文檔收集這樣的信息。
In the case of Orbitz, Mac and PC users were actually given the same choices. However, they appeared in different orders. For Mac users, the higher-priced hotels showed up higher in the search results. Orbitz says ninety percent of its users book a hotel that appears on the first page, and mostly in the top five listings.
在Orbitz這個案例中，Mac和PC用戶實際上被給出了相同的選擇。然而，它們出現(xiàn)的順序不同。對于Mac用戶來說，高價的酒店出現(xiàn)在搜索結(jié)果中靠前位置。Orbitz稱他們90%的用戶會預定出現(xiàn)在首頁的酒店，而大多數(shù)會預定排名前五的酒店。
