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Many years ago, I reviewed the code at Booking.com that implemented this (in the version thar existed at the time, there's many more variants of it today) and i

Many years ago, I reviewed the code at Booking.com that implemented this (in the version thar existed at the time, there's many more variants of it today) and it had a clear enough definition and was roughly what you'd expect it to be if you tried to design/implement it faithfully but without crazy out-there amounts of work: "number of detected-as-not-a-bot page views for this hotel (page) within the last X minutes" where X was, if I recall correctly, "a few" as in single digit. It was done by consuming a near-real time steam of logs, such that the X minutes above wouldn't be massively biased by the processing delay. I'm certain this was reimplemented at least once since because that wouldn't scale any more to their volume today. Also, this functionality has received significant amount of scrutiny from some regulators, so last I looked, there was a mouse over that gave the actual definition. That being said, in no way am I trying to convince anyone that it's not a "dark pattern" or that you have to think it's a good idea on any way. Just looking to preempt some comment that claims Booking.com is actively lying about this. They weren't ~5-6 years ago when I read the implementation and I don't they could've started doing that systematically since then due to regulatory attention.

kashyapc 7y ago
I don't know, still, most people's "psychological setup" isn't wired to handle this kind of manipulation on a frequent basis, even if "designed/implemented it faithfully". It would just make the web a little more serene place if the said websites did away with these kind of pernicious practices which only induce stress and agony.
- smueller1234 7y ago
  I'm with you. Weirdly, even though I certainly have an above average understanding of these tactics, they almost certainly still have a minor effect on me anyway. What I was trying to do was to preempt the allegations that Booking is lying to its users. None of the allegations I'd seen while I was there actually checked out on that front. I, like most others, severely disliked the urgency messaging, but as is with ethics discussions, it was never clear cut. I did not perceive that there was a widespread culture of trying to trick users into purchasing something they didn't want. For most of my tenure, I managed the infrastructure department, not product, so was a bit removed. Experimentation infrastructure fell into my scope, though. We invested significant effort into both education and countermeasures for things like p-hacking.
mikeash 7y ago
I believe that the messages are accurate but they’re also incredibly misleading. I just did a search for nearby rooms for the end of September 2020. It shows me a bunch of listings with a bright red “Only 1 left!” As far as I can tell, these are Airbnb style listings where the property is really just a single apartment. The message is technically correct (there is only one left) but incredibly misleading (there’s only one to even be available at all, it’s not because of high demand). Every listing I checked also shows me “Lowest price today!” Obviously that’s because the price has remained constant. In fact, I’m likely the first person today to check these particular dates at all. The claim is technically correct, but easily creates the impression that you’ve caught a price decrease and that it’s likely to go back up soon. I didn’t see it in this search, but I’ve seen many times before where sites will say something like “5 rooms left for this date” and “12 people booked this today.” They mean 12 people booked this hotel in general today, but it’s easily interpreted as 12 people booked the dates you’re looking at where there’s only 5 left, so you’d better grab it now. It’s misleading and they know it’s misleading. That is lying even if the statements are technically correct. After all, lying is about intent; making a false statement sincerely is not a lie, and making a true statement with the intent to deceive is.

kashyapc 7y ago

I don't know, still, most people's "psychological setup" isn't wired to handle this kind of manipulation on a frequent basis, even if "designed/implemented it faithfully". It would just make the web a little more serene place if the said websites did away with these kind of pernicious practices which only induce stress and agony.

smueller1234 7y ago
I'm with you. Weirdly, even though I certainly have an above average understanding of these tactics, they almost certainly still have a minor effect on me anyway. What I was trying to do was to preempt the allegations that Booking is lying to its users. None of the allegations I'd seen while I was there actually checked out on that front. I, like most others, severely disliked the urgency messaging, but as is with ethics discussions, it was never clear cut. I did not perceive that there was a widespread culture of trying to trick users into purchasing something they didn't want. For most of my tenure, I managed the infrastructure department, not product, so was a bit removed. Experimentation infrastructure fell into my scope, though. We invested significant effort into both education and countermeasures for things like p-hacking.

mikeash 7y ago

I believe that the messages are accurate but they’re also incredibly misleading. I just did a search for nearby rooms for the end of September 2020. It shows me a bunch of listings with a bright red “Only 1 left!” As far as I can tell, these are Airbnb style listings where the property is really just a single apartment. The message is technically correct (there is only one left) but incredibly misleading (there’s only one to even be available at all, it’s not because of high demand). Every listing I checked also shows me “Lowest price today!” Obviously that’s because the price has remained constant. In fact, I’m likely the first person today to check these particular dates at all. The claim is technically correct, but easily creates the impression that you’ve caught a price decrease and that it’s likely to go back up soon. I didn’t see it in this search, but I’ve seen many times before where sites will say something like “5 rooms left for this date” and “12 people booked this today.” They mean 12 people booked this hotel in general today, but it’s easily interpreted as 12 people booked the dates you’re looking at where there’s only 5 left, so you’d better grab it now. It’s misleading and they know it’s misleading. That is lying even if the statements are technically correct. After all, lying is about intent; making a false statement sincerely is not a lie, and making a true statement with the intent to deceive is.