IP Address

[insomniac]

Can a business’ software identify (by IP address) when a vistor to its’ website is a return visitor?
I gather that some airlines generate higher ticket prices for second or subsequent price queries than from the original visit. Is that true and is it commonplace?
The reason I ask is that I recently secured a great magazine subscription rate (plus free gift of 6 bottles of red wine). I was going to recommend it to a few friends so re-visited the site a week or so later only to find that the offer I’d signed up to had been replaced by a much inferior offer. Would a first-time (by IP address) visitor to that website see another – perhaps the one I signed up to – offer?

PS The wine arrived on Friday and is really very nice, much better than I had a right to expect.

[Ken(West Derby)]

I think much depends upon two factors. One is your IP address. Depending upon your Internet Service Provider you may have a static IP number regardless of how often you connect or disconnect to the internet. With the likes of BT, each time you disconnect your internet connection and reconnect minutes or hours later you are then allocated another IP number taken from a pool of numbers. So when you disconnect your IP number goes back into the pool and is picked up by someone else re-connecting. With the likes of Virgin you get a static number which rarely changes though I understand you can request to change it. If you want to check your IP number visit WHOIS and click on ‘what is my IP’ then when you’ve noted the number that appears, disconnect from the internet and re-connect and then visit WHOIS again. The number should be different if you are on a non-static IP protocol.
The advertiser will have placed a cookie on your computer when you first visited their site. Unless you clear your cookies regularly, next time you visit their site they will automatically identify that you are a past visitor and may therefore be able to throw-up a different page to the one you originally visited. I make a point of clearing my cookies on a daily basis.
Not sure if that helps?
K

[insomniac]

That’s great Ken, a clear and lucid explanation; much appreciated.

[Author]

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