In Vancouver it's well known that the overwhelming majority of Chinese people who emigrate here have English variants to their name. If anything the study underestimates the figure as many non-Canadian Chinese (particularly in HK) do have western variants.
Glad you've taken an introductory critical thinking course. This isn't ad-hominem. Raising doubts of the validity of someone's statement based on inherent conflict of interest is a valid line of argument.
As a facebook user, I'm happy I'm not longer gonna get "your friend has invited you to this app..." notifications. As a developer, though, I can see why this would be frustrating.
Yah - I've seen the same thing. It's more about working closely with founders and then, "oh yah that thing you were planning on adding in 6 months, I'm gonna do that now and steal your IP"
I went through a similar thing. It even got to the stage where my wife was telling me I was addicted to work but I had had jobs before, I just really liked what I was doing for a change and would get rushes from it.
Please don't take this the wrong way, but does this really belong on the front page of Hacker News? This is like celebrity news for nerds. I care about what Angelina got Brad for Valentines as much as I care about this.
The title is a bit misleading. It ends with him saying that he thinks the Iphone is best for most people. He really just praised Android for a few features but maintained that the Iphone is a better product in his mind.
Nope, I don't think this one is about advertising. My guess is they want to move into the hotel referral sales game (it's not secret they've been trying to move into this space for a while). Before you can move into hotels though, you have to have a good flight search engine.
Makes sense. I wasn't trying to dog on hipmunk too much. Like I said, I actually really like it. My biggest thing with the UI was whether or not non-analytically-minded people appreciate the nuances you guys are working on. Anyways, happy to chat more if you're interested. I can also fuck off :P
Ah re #1 - I was under the impression that you were actually using Orbitz inventory for hotels (flights are through GDS I assume - but barely make money anyway).
re #2 - yah totally subjective and I have no data besides anecdotes
re #3 - again I have no data to support this. Just generally incredibly suspect of any growth that comes from SEM (though there's clearly cases where it's worked). Good to hear there's some retention, though.
I was a relatively senior member at Expedia, and though there is an obvious bias, I think Hipmunk is a bit overrated. Here's why
(1) They don't own any relationships with suppliers. UI/UX matter, but any business owner will tell you that those relationships are where the money is. Hipmunk still has to give 50%+ of it's earnings away to those who own the relationships.
(2) Hipmunk's differentiating factor is its UI/UX, but frankly, I don't think it's all that amazing. Its structure and optimization are great for nerds like me who read hacker news, but try getting your parents (or people who spend big bucks booking travel) to use it. I have, and the resounding response is how difficult it is to use. Again, there is a market for their product, but I think it's designed by nerds for nerds
(3) 1 million flight + hotel searches a month is actually nothing with respect to the market, especially considering how much I see ads for hipmunk. Anyone can make a white-label travel site and pay for traffic.
I'm not trying to be a contrarian just to be an asshole. And Hipmunk might have great things in the pipeline, but for now, they're one of hundreds of travel sites in my opinion.
I love the implementation of the app and think the UI is very well thought out. I'm sure you already know this, but people love to criticize to feel important. Skimming the concerned replies, almost all are pedantic usability tradeoffs I'm sure you considered. So just wanted to say good job, dude.
I ironically used to work for McKinsey and was among their top performers, then I dropped out of the rat race and have been doing just enough freelance work to stay afloat. I didn't know there was a term for my type, but "threshold earner" gives me a sense of legitimacy. I like it.