#Public Books APIs

[mostlysignssomeportents]

The enshittification of garage-door openers reveals a vast and deadly rot

I'll be at the Studio City branch of the LA Public Library on Monday, November 13 at 1830hPT to launch my new novel, The Lost Cause. There'll be a reading, a talk, a surprise guest (!!) and a signing, with books on sale. Tell your friends! Come on down!

How could this happen? Owners of Chamberlain MyQ automatic garage door openers just woke up to discover that the company had confiscated valuable features overnight, and that there was nothing they could do about it.

Oh, we know what happened, technically speaking. Chamberlain shut off the API for its garage-door openers, which breaks their integration with home automation systems like Home Assistant. The company even announced that it was doing this, calling the integration an "unauthorized usage" of its products, though the "unauthorized" parties in this case are the people who own Chamberlain products:

https://chamberlaingroup.com/press/a-message-about-our-decision-to-prevent-unauthorized-usage-of-myq

We even know why Chamberlain did this. As Ars Technica's Ron Amadeo points out, shutting off the API is a way for Chamberlain to force its customers to use its ad-beshitted, worst-of-breed app, so that it can make a few pennies by nonconsensually monetizing its customers' eyeballs:

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2023/11/chamberlain-blocks-smart-garage-door-opener-from-working-with-smart-homes/

But how did this happen? How did a giant company like Chamberlain come to this enshittening juncture, in which it felt empowered to sabotage the products it had already sold to its customers? How can this be legal? How can it be good for business? How can the people who made this decision even look themselves in the mirror?

To answer these questions, we must first consider the forces that discipline companies, acting against the impulse to enshittify their products and services. There are four constraints on corporate conduct:

I. Competition. The fear of losing your business to a rival can stay even the most sociopathic corporate executive's hand.

II. Regulation. The fear of being fined, criminally sanctioned, or banned from doing business can check the greediest of leaders.

III. Capability. Corporate executives can dream up all kinds of awful ways to shift value from your side of the ledger to their own, but they can only do the things that are technically feasible.

IV. Self-help. The possibility of customers modifying, reconfiguring or altering their products to restore lost functionality or neutralize antifeatures carries an implied threat to vendors. If a printer company's anti-generic-ink measures drives a customer to jailbreak their printers, the original manufacturer's connection to that customer is permanently severed, as the customer creates a durable digital connection to a rival.

When companies act in obnoxious, dishonest, shitty ways, they aren't merely yielding to temptation – they are evading these disciplining forces. Thus, the Great Enshittening we are living through doesn't reflect an increase in the wickedness of corporate leadership. Rather, it represents a moment in which each of these disciplining factors have been gutted by specific policies.

This is good news, actually. We used to put down rat poison and we didn't have a rat problem. Then we stopped putting down rat poison and rats are eating us alive. That's not a nice feeling, but at least we know at least one way of addressing it – we can start putting down poison again. That is, we can start enforcing the rules that we stopped enforcing, in living memory. Having a terrible problem is no fun, but the best kind of terrible problem to have is one that you know a solution to.

As it happens, Chamberlain is a neat microcosm for all the bad policy choices that created the Era of Enshittification. Let's go through them:

Competition: Chamberlain doesn't have to worry about competition, because it is owned by a private equity fund that "rolled up" all of Chamberlain's major competitors into a single, giant firm. Most garage-door opener brands are actually Chamberlain, including "LiftMaster, Chamberlain, Merlin, and Grifco":

https://www.lakewoodgaragedoor.biz/blog/the-history-of-garage-door-openers

This is a pretty typical PE rollup, and it exploits a bug in US competition law called "Antitrust's Twilight Zone":

https://pluralistic.net/2022/12/16/schumpeterian-terrorism/#deliberately-broken

When companies buy each other, they are subject to "merger scrutiny," a set of guidelines that the FTC and DoJ Antitrust Division use to determine whether the outcome is likely to be bad for competition. These rules have been pretty lax since the Reagan administration, but they've currently being revised to make them substantially more strict:

https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/justice-department-and-ftc-seek-comment-draft-merger-guidelines

One of the blind spots in these merger guidelines is an exemption for mergers valued at less than $101m. Under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Act, these fly under the radar, evading merger scrutiny. That means that canny PE companies can roll up dozens and dozens of standalone businesses, like funeral homes, hospital beds, magic mushrooms, youth addiction treatment centers, mobile home parks, nursing homes, physicians’ practices, local newspapers, or e-commerce sellers:

http://www.economicliberties.us/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/Serial-Acquisitions-Working-Paper-R4-2.pdf

By titrating the purchase prices, PE companies – like Blackstone, owners of Chamberlain and all the other garage-door makers – can acquire a monopoly without ever raising a regulatory red flag.

But antitrust enforcers aren't helpless. Under (the long dormant) Section 7 of the Clayton Act, competition regulators can block mergers that lead to "incipient monopolization." The incipiency standard prevented monopolies from forming from 1914, when the Clayton Act passed, until the Reagan administration. We used to put down rat poison, and we didn't have rats. We stopped, and rats are gnawing our faces off. We still know where the rat poison is – maybe we should start putting it down again.

On to regulation. How is it possible for Chamberlain to sell you a garage-door opener that has an API and works with your chosen home automation system, and then unilaterally confiscate that valuable feature? Shouldn't regulation protect you from this kind of ripoff?

It should, but it doesn't. Instead, we have a bunch of regulations that protect Chamberlain from you. Think of binding arbitration, which allows Chamberlain to force you to click through an "agreement" that takes away your right to sue them or join a class-action suit:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/10/20/benevolent-dictators/#felony-contempt-of-business-model

But regulation could protect you from Chamberlain. Section 5 of the Federal Trade Commission Act allows the FTC to ban any "unfair and deceptive" conduct. This law has been on the books since 1914, but Section 5 has been dormant, forgotten and unused, for decades. The FTC's new dynamo chair, Lina Khan, has revived it, and is use it like a can-opener to free Americans who've been trapped by abusive conduct:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/01/10/the-courage-to-govern/#whos-in-charge

Khan's used Section 5 powers to challenge privacy invasions, noncompete clauses, and other corporate abuses – the bait-and-switch tactics of Chamberlain are ripe for a Section 5 case. If you buy a gadget because it has five features and then the vendor takes two of them away, they are clearly engaged in "unfair and deceptive" conduct.

On to capability. Since time immemorial, corporate leaders have fetishized "flexibility" in their business arrangements – like the ability to do "dynamic pricing" that changes how much you pay for something based on their guess about how much you are willing to pay. But this impulse to play shell games runs up against the hard limits of physical reality: grocers just can't send an army of rollerskated teenagers around the store to reprice everything as soon as a wealthy or desperate-looking customer comes through the door. They're stuck with crude tactics like doubling the price of a flight that doesn't include a Saturday stay as a way of gouging business travelers on an expense account.

With any shell-game, the quickness of the hand deceives the eye. Corporate crooks armed with computers aren't smarter or more wicked than their analog forebears, but they are faster. Digital tools allow companies to alter the "business logic" of their services from instant to instant, in highly automated ways:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/02/19/twiddler/

The monopoly coalition has successfully argued that this endless "twiddling" should not be constrained by privacy, labor or consumer protection law. Without these constraints, corporate twiddlers can engage in all kinds of ripoffs, like wage theft and algorithmic wage discrimination:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/04/12/algorithmic-wage-discrimination/#fishers-of-men

Twiddling is key to the Darth Vader MBA ("I am altering the deal. Pray I don't alter it further"), in which features are confiscated from moment to moment, without warning or recourse:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/10/26/hit-with-a-brick/#graceful-failure

There's no reason to accept the premise that violating your privacy, labor rights or consumer rights with a computer is so different from analog ripoffs that existing laws don't apply. The unconstrained twiddling of digital ripoff artists is a plague on billions of peoples' lives, and any enforcer who sticks up for our rights will have an army of supporters behind them.

Finally, there's the fear of self-help measures. All the digital flexibility that tech companies use to take value away can be used to take it back, too. The whole modern history of digital computers is the history of "adversarial interoperability," in which the sleazy antifeatures of established companies are banished through reverse-engineering, scraping, bots and other forms of technological guerrilla warfare:

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2019/10/adversarial-interoperability

Adversarial interoperability represents a serious threat to established business. If you're a printer company gouging on toner, your customers might defect to a rival that jailbreaks your security measures. That's what happened to Lexmark, who lost a case against the toner-refilling company Static Controls, which went on to buy Lexmark:

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2019/06/felony-contempt-business-model-lexmarks-anti-competitive-legacy

Sure, your customers are busy and inattentive and you can degrade the quality of your product a lot before they start looking for ways out. But once they cross that threshold, you can lose them forever. That's what happened to Microsoft: the company made the tactical decision to produce a substandard version of Office for the Mac in a drive to get Mac users to switch to Windows. Instead, Apple made Iwork (Pages, Numbers and Keynote), which could read and write every Office file, and Mac users threw away Office, the only Microsoft product they owned, permanently severing their relationship to the company:

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2019/06/adversarial-interoperability-reviving-elegant-weapon-more-civilized-age-slay

Today, companies can operate without worrying about this kind of self-help measure. There' a whole slew of IP rights that Chamberlain can enforce against you if you try to fix your garage-door opener yourself, or look to a competitor to sell you a product that restores the feature they took away:

https://locusmag.com/2020/09/cory-doctorow-ip/

Jailbreaking your Chamberlain gadget in order to make it answer to a rival's app involves bypassing a digital lock. Trafficking in a tool to break a digital lock is a felony under Section 1201 of the Digital Millennium Copyright, carrying a five-year prison sentence and a $500,000 fine.

In other words, it's not just that tech isn't regulated, allowing for endless twiddling against your privacy, consumer rights and labor rights. It's that tech is badly regulated, to permit unlimited twiddling by tech companies to take away your rightsand to prohibit any twiddling by you to take them back. The US government thumbs the scales against you, creating a regime that Jay Freeman aptly dubbed "felony contempt of business model":

https://pluralistic.net/2022/10/23/how-to-fix-cars-by-breaking-felony-contempt-of-business-model/

All kinds of companies have availed themselves of this government-backed superpower. There's DRM – digital locks, covered by DMCA 1201 – in powered wheelchairs:

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2022/06/when-drm-comes-your-wheelchair

In dishwashers:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/05/03/cassette-rewinder/#disher-bob

In treadmills:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/06/22/vapescreen/#jane-get-me-off-this-crazy-thing

In tractors:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/05/08/about-those-kill-switched-ukrainian-tractors/

It should come as no surprise to learn that Chamberlain has used DMCA 1201 to block interoperable garage door opener components:

https://scholarship.law.marquette.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1233&context=iplr

That's how we arrived at this juncture, where a company like Chamberlain can break functionality its customers value highly, solely to eke out a minuscule new line of revenue by selling ads on their own app.

Chamberlain bought all its competitors.

Chamberlain operates in a regulatory environment that is extremely tolerant of unfair and deceptive practices. Worse: they can unilaterally take away your right to sue them, which means that if regulators don't bestir themselves to police Chamberlain, you are shit out of luck.

Chamberlain has endless flexibility to unilaterally alter its products' functionality, in fine-grained ways, even after you've purchased them.

Chamberlain can sue you if you try to exercise some of that same flexibility to protect yourself from their bad practices.

Combine all four of those factors, and of course Chamberlain is going to enshittify its products. Every company has had that one weaselly asshole at the product-planning table who suggests a petty grift like breaking every one of the company's customers' property to sell a few ads. But historically, the weasel lost the argument to others, who argued that making every existing customer furious would affect the company's bottom line, costing it sales and/or fines, and prompting customers to permanently sever their relationship with the company by seeking out and installing alternative software. Take away all the constraints on a corporation's worst impulses, and this kind of conduct is inevitable:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/07/28/microincentives-and-enshittification/

This isn't limited to Chamberlain. Without the discipline of competition, regulation, self-help measures or technological limitations, every industry in undergoing wholesale enshittification. It's not a coincidence that Chamberlain's grift involves a push to move users into its app. Because apps can't be reverse-engineered and modified without risking DMCA 1201 prosecution, forcing a user into an app is a tidy and reliable way to take away that user's rights.

Think about ad-blocking. One in four web users has installed an ad-blockers ("the biggest boycott in world history" -Doc Searls). Zero app users have installed app-blockers, because they don't exist, because making one is a felony. An app is just a web-page wrapped in enough IP to make it a crime to defend yourself against corporate predation:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/08/27/an-audacious-plan-to-halt-the-internets-enshittification-and-throw-it-into-reverse/

The temptation to enshitiffy isn't new, but the ability to do so without consequence is a modern phenomenon, the intersection of weak policy enforcement and powerful technology. Your car is autoenshittified, a rolling rent-seeking platform that spies on you and price-gouges you:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/07/24/rent-to-pwn/#kitt-is-a-demon

Cars are in an uncontrolled skid over Enshittification Cliff. Honda, Toyota, VW and GM all sell cars with infotainment systems that harvest your connected phone's text-messages and send them to the corporation for data-mining. What's more, a judge in Washington state just ruled that this is legal:

https://therecord.media/class-action-lawsuit-cars-text-messages-privacy

While there's no excuse for this kind of sleazy conduct, we can reasonably anticipate that if our courts would punish companies for engaging in it, they might be able to resist the temptation. No wonder Mozilla's latest Privacy Not Included research report called cars "the worst product category we have ever reviewed":

https://foundation.mozilla.org/en/privacynotincluded/articles/its-official-cars-are-the-worst-product-category-we-have-ever-reviewed-for-privacy/

I mean, Nissan tries to infer facts about your sex life and sells those inferences to marketing companies:

https://foundation.mozilla.org/en/privacynotincluded/nissan/

But the OG digital companies are the masters of enshittification. Microsoft has been at this game for longer than anyone, and every day brings a fresh way that Microsoft has worsened its products without fear of consequence. The latest? You can't delete your OneDrive account until you provide an acceptable explanation for your disloyalty:

https://www.theverge.com/2023/11/8/23952878/microsoft-onedrive-windows-close-app-notification

It's tempting to think that the cruelty is the point, but it isn't. It's almost never the point. The point is power and money. Unscrupulous businesses have found ways to make money by making their products worse since the industrial revolution. Here's Jules Dupuis, writing about 19th century French railroads:

It is not because of the few thousand francs which would have to be spent to put a roof over the third-class carriages or to upholster the third-class seats that some company or other has open carriages with wooden benches. What the company is trying to do is to prevent the passengers who can pay the second class fare from traveling third class; it hits the poor, not because it wants to hurt them, but to frighten the rich. And it is again for the same reason that the companies, having proved almost cruel to the third-class passengers and mean to the second-class ones, become lavish in dealing with first-class passengers. Having refused the poor what is necessary, they give the rich what is superfluous.

https://www.tumblr.com/mostlysignssomeportents/731357317521719296/having-refused-the-poor-what-is-necessary-they

But as bad as all this is, let me remind you about the good part: we know how to stop companies from enshittifying their products. We know what disciplines their conduct: competition, regulation, capability and self-help measures. Yes, rats are gnawing our eyeballs, but we know which rat-poison to use, and where to put it to control those rats.

Competition, regulation, constraint and self-help measures all backstop one another, and while one or a few can make a difference, they are most powerful when they're all mobilized in concert. Think of the failure of the EU's landmark privacy law, the GDPR. While the GDPR proved very effective against bottom-feeding smaller ad-tech companies, the worse offenders, Meta and Google, have thumbed their noses at it.

This was enabled in part by the companies' flying an Irish flag of convenience, maintaining the pretense that they have to be regulated in a notorious corporate crime-haven:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/05/15/finnegans-snooze/#dirty-old-town

That let them get away with all kinds of shenanigans, like ignoring the GDPR's requirement that you should be able to easily opt out of data-collection without having to go through cumbersome "cookie consent" dialogs or losing access to the service as punishment for declining to be tracked.

As the noose has tightened around these surveillance giants, they're continuing to play games. Meta now says that the only way to opt out of data-collection in the EU is to pay for the service:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/10/30/markets-remaining-irrational/#steins-law

This is facially illegal under the GDPR. Not only are they prohibited from punishing you for opting out of collection, but the whole scheme ignores the nature of private data collection. If Facebook collects the fact that you and I are friends, but I never opted into data-collection, they have violated the GDPR, even if you were coerced into granting consent:

https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2023/11/the-pay-or-consent-challenge-for-platform-regulators.html

The GDPR has been around since 2016 and Google and Meta are still invading 500 million Europeans' privacy. This latest delaying tactic could add years to their crime-spree before they are brought to justice.

But most of this surveillance is only possible because so much of how you interact with Google and Meta is via an app, and an app is just a web-page that's a felony to make an ad-blocker for. If the EU were to legalize breaking DRM – repealing Article 6 of the 2001 Copyright Directive – then we wouldn't have to wait for the European Commission to finally wrestle these two giant companies to the ground. Instead, EU companies could make alternative clients for all of Google and Meta's services that don't spy on you, without suffering the fate of OG App, which tried this last winter and was shut down by "felony contempt of business model":

https://pluralistic.net/2023/02/05/battery-vampire/#drained

Enshittification is demoralizing. To quote @wilwheaton, every update to the services we use inspires "dread of 'How will this complicate things as I try to maintain privacy and sanity in a world that demands I have this thing to operate?'"

https://wilwheaton.tumblr.com/post/698603648058556416/cory-doctorow-if-you-see-this-and-have-thoughts

But there are huge natural constituencies for the four disciplining forces that keep enshittification at bay.

Remember, Antitrust's Twilight Zone doesn't just allow rollups of garage-door opener companies – it's also poison for funeral homes, hospital beds, magic mushrooms, youth addiction treatment centers, mobile home parks, nursing homes, physicians’ practices, local newspapers, or e-commerce sellers.

The Binding Arbitration scam that stops Chamberlain customers from suing the company also stops Uber drivers from suing over stolen wages, Turbotax customers from suing over fraud, and many other victims of corporate crime from getting a day in court.

The failure to constrain twiddling to protect privacy, labor rights and consumer rights enables a host of abuses, from stalking, doxing and SWATting to wage theft and price gouging:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/11/06/attention-rents/#consumer-welfare-queens

And Felony Contempt of Business Model is used to screw you over every time you refill your printer, run your dishwasher, or get your Iphone's screen replaced.

The actions needed to halt and reverse this enshittification are well understood, and the partisans for taking those actions are too numerous to count. It's taken a long time for all those individuals suffering under corporate abuses to crystallize into a movement, but at long last, it's happening.

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/11/09/lead-me-not-into-temptation/#chamberlain

Image: Cryteria (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:HAL9000.svg

CC BY 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en

[mariacallous]

Fable, a popular social media app that describes itself as a haven for “bookworms and bingewatchers,” created an AI-powered end-of-year summary feature recapping what books users read in 2024. It was meant to be playful and fun, but some of the recaps took on an oddly combative tone. Writer Danny Groves’ summary for example, asked if he’s “ever in the mood for a straight, cis white man’s perspective” after labeling him a “diversity devotee.”

Books influencer Tiana Trammell’s summary, meanwhile, ended with the following advice: “Don’t forget to surface for the occasional white author, okay?”

Trammell was flabbergasted, and she soon realized she wasn’t alone after sharing her experience with Fable’s summaries on Threads. “I received multiple messages,” she says, from people whose summaries had inappropriately commented on “disability and sexual orientation.”

Ever since the debut of Spotify Wrapped, annual recap features have become ubiquitous across the internet, providing users a rundown of how many books and news articles they read, songs they listened to, and workouts they completed. Some companies are now using AI to wholly produce or augment how these metrics are presented. Spotify, for example, now offers an AI-generated podcast where robots analyze your listening history and make guesses about your life based on your tastes. Fable hopped on the trend by using OpenAI’s API to generate summaries of the past 12 months of the reading habits for its users, but it didn’t expect that the AI model would spit out commentary that took on the mien of an anti-woke pundit.

Fable later apologized on several social media channels, including Threads and Instagram, where it posted a video of an executive issuing the mea culpa. “We are deeply sorry for the hurt caused by some of our Reader Summaries this week,” the company wrote in the caption. “We will do better.”

Kimberly Marsh Allee, Fable’s head of community, told WIRED before publication that the company was working on a series of changes to improve its AI summaries, including an opt-out option for people who don’t want them and clearer disclosures indicating that they’re AI-generated. “For the time being, we have removed the part of the model that playfully roasts the reader, and instead the model simply summarizes the user’s taste in books,” she said.

After publication, Marsh Allee said that Fable had instead made the decision to immediately remove the AI-generated 2024 reading summaries, as well as two other features that used AI.

For some users, adjusting the AI does not feel like an adequate response. Fantasy and romance writer A.R. Kaufer was aghast when she saw screenshots of some of the summaries on social media. “They need to say they are doing away with the AI completely. And they need to issue a statement, not only about the AI, but with an apology to those affected,” says Kaufer. “This ‘apology’ on Threads comes across as insincere, mentioning the app is ‘playful’ as though it somehow excuses the racist/sexist/ableist quotes.” In response to the incident, Kaufer decided to delete her Fable account.

So did Trammell. “The appropriate course of action would be to disable the feature and conduct rigorous internal testing, incorporating newly implemented safeguards to ensure, to the best of their abilities, that no further platform users are exposed to harm,” she says.

Groves concurs. “If individualized reader summaries aren't sustainable because the team is small, I'd rather be without them than confronted with unchecked AI outputs that might offend with testy language or slurs,” he says. “That's my two cents … assuming Fable is in the mood for a gay, cis Black man's perspective.”

Generative AI tools already have a lengthy track record of race-related misfires. In 2022, researchers found that OpenAI’s image generator Dall-E had a bad habit of showing nonwhite people when asked to depict “prisoners” and all white people when it showed “CEOs.” Last fall, WIRED reported that a variety of AI search engines surfaced debunked and racist theories about how white people are genetically superior to other races.

Overcorrecting has sometimes become an issue, too: Google’s Gemini was roundly criticized last year when it repeatedly depicted World War II–era Nazis as people of color in a misguided bid for inclusivity. “When I saw confirmation that it was generative AI making those summaries, I wasn't surprised,” Groves says. “These algorithms are built by programmers who live in a biased society, so of course the machine learning will carry the biases, too—whether conscious or unconscious.”

[reading-writing-revolution]

(via The Unbelievable Scale of AI’s Pirated-Books Problem - The Atlantic)

Court documents released last night show that the senior manager felt it was “really important for [Meta] to get books ASAP,” as “books are actually more important than web data.” Meta employees turned their attention to Library Genesis, or LibGen, one of the largest of the pirated libraries that circulate online. It currently contains more than 7.5 million books and 81 million research papers. Eventually, the team at Meta got permission from “MZ”—an apparent reference to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg—to download and use the data set.

This act, along with other information outlined and quoted here, recently became a matter of public record when some of Meta’s internal communications were unsealed as part of a copyright-infringement lawsuit brought against the company by Sarah Silverman, Junot Díaz, and other authors of books in LibGen. Also revealed recently, in another lawsuit brought by a similar group of authors, is that OpenAI has used LibGen in the past. (A spokesperson for Meta declined to comment, citing the ongoing litigation against the company. In a response sent after this story was published, a spokesperson for OpenAI said, “The models powering ChatGPT and our API today were not developed using these datasets. These datasets, created by former employees who are no longer with OpenAI, were last used in 2021.”)

[warningsine]

As the war between Israel and Hamas has intensified in Gaza, disinformation and conspiracy theories about the conflict have been increasingly circulating on social media.

At least that’s what I found in my analysis of some 12,000 comments posted on Telegram channels in the immediate aftermath of Hamas’ October 7 attack on Israel. Not surprisingly, I also found language about the war was more likely to be threatening or hateful than language used in comments about other topics.

Many comments on Telegram also linked the Israel-Hamas conflict to dangerous, antisemitic conspiracy theories related to the war between Russia and Ukraine, hundreds of kilometres away on another continent.

For instance, I found the Russian invasion of Ukraine was characterised by these conspiracy theorists as a justified resistance against the “Khazarian Mafia” (so-called “fake Jews”) who supposedly govern Ukraine either as Nazis, or like them.

Commenters on Telegram characterised Hamas’ October 7 attack in similar terms – as an attack against “fake Zionist Ashkenazi Jews” and Nazis.

Both conflicts were also characterised as “new world order” plots. Proponents of these conspiracies believe that powerful elites (often characterised as Jewish) are secretly trying to establish a totalitarian world government or other forms of global oppression.

A comment in one of the channels summarised this view, arguing ���these globalists are evil starting a second psyop [psychological operation] front after Ukraine failed”.

Other comments linked the two conflicts by calling Western supporters of Ukraine hypocrites for condemning the actions of Hamas. As one user argued: “The West’s weapons in Ukraine [were] sent to Hamas for the offensive.”

Polycrises and conspiracies

Many of these conspiracies are not new on their own. However, what is unique in this situation is the way people have linked two largely unrelated conflicts through conspiracy theories.

Research has shown that overlapping crises (often referred to as “polycrises”) may accelerate the spread of conspiracies, possibly due to the psychological toll that constantly adapting to rapid change places on people.

When crises overlap, such as wars and global pandemics, it can amplify the effects of conspiracies, too. For example, the amount of prejudice and radicalisation seen online may increase. In extreme cases, individuals may also act on their beliefs.

Although these conspiracies are appearing on the fringes of social media, it’s still important to understand how this type of rhetoric can evolve and how it can be harmful if it seeps into mainstream media or politics.

How I conducted my research

I have been following several public Australian Telegram channels as part of a broader project investigating the intersection of conspiracy theories and security.

For the latest phase of this research, which has yet to be peer reviewed, I analysed 12,000 comments posted to three of these channels between October 8 and October 11.

To analyse so many messages, I used a topic modelling approach. This is a statistical model that can identify frequently occurring themes (or topics) within large amounts of text-based data. Essentially, topic modelling is similar to highlighting sections of a book containing related themes.

There are many approaches to topic modelling. I used BERTopic, which generates topics by “clustering” messages with similar characteristics, like words, sentences and other bits of context. In total, I identified 40 distinct topics in the comments I analysed.

I then split these topics into conflict and non-conflict groupings to analyse the sentiment behind them. I used Google’s Perspective API algorithm to do this, as it can score text on a scale of zero to one for hateful or threatening language. The results show that conflict topics were more likely to involve threatening and hateful speech.

A key reason for this is the antisemitic nature of the most common conflict topic grouping (key words: “Israel”, “Jew”, “Hamas”, “Zionist”, “Palestinian”). One representative comment from this group, for instance, called for the elimination of Israel as a state.

I found Islamophobic messages in this topic grouping, as well. For example, some comments suggested Hamas’ actions were reflective of Islamic beliefs or demonstrated the danger posed by Muslims more generally.

The second-largest topic (key words: “Ukraine”, “Russia”, “Putin”, “war”, “Islam”, “propaganda”) captured discussions linking the Hamas attacks to the Russia-Ukraine war. Messages did this by casting both conflicts as justified on similar grounds (a fight against alleged Nazis and Zionists), or by linking them to global conspiracies.

And I found variations of the “new world order” global conspiracy theory in other topics. For instance, the fourth-largest topic (key words: “video”, “clown”, “fake”, “movie”, “staged”) included comments accusing Israel and other common conspiracy figures of staging the Hamas attacks.

This closely aligns with topics about the Russia-Ukraine war from my broader project. One of the most frequently discussed topics (key words: “Putin”, “war”, “Nazi”, “Ukraine”, “Jewish”) frames Ukraine’s defensive efforts as a sinister conspiracy, usually involving Jewish figures like Ukraine’s president.

How to combat the spread of conspiracy theories

As noted, the conspiracy-friendly nature of social media, in addition to overlapping “polycrises”, may increase people’s levels of prejudice and radicalisation.

Australian security agencies have already warned about this risk in the ongoing Israel-Hamas war. ASIO Director-General Mike Burgess warned of “spontaneous violence” arising from “language that inflames tension[s]”.

Research has also shown a strong relationship between conspiracies and antisemitism, which presents clear risks for Jewish people. Indeed, antisemitism reached unprecedented levels in the United States in 2021 and 2022, possibly due to the series of overlapping crises the world was experiencing at the time.

Countering online conspiracy theories is therefore an important, but challenging task. Effective counter-strategies involve a mix of preventative and responsive approaches targeting both the suppliers and consumers of conspiracies.

This includes increasing our investment in education, reducing social inequality, and carefully debunking conspiracy theories when they appear. Awareness of the dynamics and spread of conspiracy narratives is a necessary first step.

[ejb59195]

Works Cited

¹ Çelebi, E. (17th century). Seyahatname. [Book of Travel].

² Krautheimer, R. (1986). Hagia Sophia: A History. Princeton University Press.

³ Hagia Sophia Research Team (n.d.). Hagia Sophia. [Photograph of Hagia Sophia exterior]. Harvard University. https://projects.iq.harvard.edu/sites/projects.iq.harvard.edu/files/styles/os_files_xxlarge/public/whoseculture/files/hagia_sophia_exterior.jpg?m=1607399097&itok=xge9nGpj

⁴ Peyssonnel, C. de. (2011). The Ottoman Empire in the 18th century: An account by Charles de Peyssonnel. (R. Dankoff, Trans.). Istanbul: The Isis Press. (Original work published 1791)

⁵ Wohl, S. (2017). The Grand Bazaar in Istanbul: The Emergent Unfolding of A Complex Adaptive System. Delft Technical University and Iowa State University. https://dr.lib.iastate.edu/server/api/core/bitstreams/f478ee3b-4098-4630-996b-024d6eefca01/content

⁶ Sèbah, J. P. (1890). Istanbul Grand Bazaar. [Photograph]. Wikimedia Commons. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Istanbul-Grand_Bazaar_Sebah.jpg

⁷ Zelazko, A. (2024). Topkapı Palace Museum. Encyclopedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/topic/Topkapi-Palace-Museum

⁸ Crocker, S. (2021). What life was like as a member of the sultan’s harem in the Ottoman Empire. Grunge. https://www.grunge.com/337783/what-life-was-like-as-a-member-of-the-sultans-harem-in-the-ottoman-empire/

⁹ Britannica. (n.d.). Third courtyard. Encyclopædia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/topic/Topkapi-Palace-Museum/Third-courtyard

¹⁰ William J. Bowe, (n.d.). Topkapı Palace Museum. Encyclopædia Britannica. https://cdn.britannica.com/86/148586-004-9ADEC63B/Topkapi-Palace-Istanbul-Turkey.jpg?s=1500x700&q=85

¹¹ Field, J. F. (2023, July 6). Süleymaniye Mosque. Encyclopedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/topic/Suleymaniye-Mosque

¹² Sinan, M. (2017). The Book of Architecture of Sinan, the Chief Architect (H. Crane & E. Akin-Kivanc, Trans.). Leiden: Brill. (Original work published 1588)

¹³ Agiel, A. (2020). Süleymaniye Mosque (1550) in Istanbul. [Photograph]. https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Ahmed-Agiel/publication/342666235/figure/fig1/AS:909290281914379@1593803105947/Sueleymaniye-Mosque-1550-in-Istanbul.jpg

¹⁴ Janissary Letter. (1526). [Letter written by a Janissary to his family]. Ottoman Empire Historical Archives.

¹⁵ Aksan, V. H. (2007). Ottoman Wars, 1700-1870: An Empire Besieged. Pearson Education Limited.

¹⁶ Nasuh, M. (1558). Ottoman Janissaries [Painting]. https://www.realmofhistory.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/facts-ottoman-janissaries_14-min.jpg?ezimgfmt=ng:webp/ngcb20

[seewetter]

It's worse.

The glasses Meta built come with language translation features -- meaning it becomes harder for bilingual families to speak privately without being overheard.

No it's even worse.

Because someone has developed an app (I-XRAY) that scans and detects who people are in real-time.

No even worse.

Because I-XRAY accesses all kinds of public data about that person.

Wait is it so bad?

I-XRAY is not publicly usable and was only built to show what a privacy nightmare Meta is creating. Here's a 2-minute video of the creators doing a experiment how quickly people on the street's trust can be exploited. It's chilling because the interactions are kind and heartwarming but obviously the people are being tricked in the most uncomfortable way.

Yes it is so bad:

Because as satirical IT News channel Fireship demonstrated, if you combine a few easily available technologies, you can reproduce I-XRAYs results easily.

Hook up an open source vision model (for face detection). This model gives us the coordinates to a human face. Then tools like PimEyes or FaceCheck.ID -- uh, both of those are free as well... put a name to that face. Then phone book websites like fastpeoplesearch.com or Instant Checkmate let us look up lots of details about those names (date of birth, phone #, address, traffic and criminal records, social media accounts, known aliases, photos & videos, email addresses, friends and relatives, location history, assets & financial info). Now you can use webscrapers (the little programs Google uses to index the entire internet and feed it to you) or APIs (programs that let us interface with, for example, open data sets by the government) -> these scraping methods will, for many targeted people, provide the perpetrators with a bulk of information. And if that sounds impractical, well, the perpetrators can use a open source, free-to-use large language model like LLaMa (also developed by Meta, oh the irony) to get a summary (or get ChatGPT style answers) of all that data.

Fireship points out that people can opt out of most of these data brokers by contacting them ("the right to be forgotten" has been successfully enforced by European courts and applies globally to people that make use of our data). Apparently the New York Times has compiled an extensive list of such sites and services.

But this is definitely dystopian. And individual opt-outs exploit that many people don't even know that this is a thing and that place the entire responsibility on the individual. And to be honest, I don't trust the New York Times and almost feel I'm drawing attention to myself if I opt out. It really leaves me personally uncertain what is the smarter move. I hope this tech is like Google's smartglasses and becomes extinct.

i hate the "meta glasses" with their invisible cameras i hate when people record strangers just-living-their-lives i hate the culture of "it's not illegal so it's fine". people deserve to walk around the city without some nameless freak recording their faces and putting them up on the internet. like dude you don't show your own face how's that for irony huh.

i hate those "testing strangers to see if they're friendly and kind! kindness wins! kindness pays!" clickbait recordings where overwhelmingly it is young, attractive people (largely women) who are being scouted for views and free advertising . they're making you model for them and they reap the benefits. they profit now off of testing you while you fucking exist. i do not want to be fucking tested. i hate the commodification of "kindness" like dude just give random people the money, not because they fucking smiled for it. none of the people recording has any idea about the origin of the term "emotional labor" and none of us could get them to even think about it. i did not apply for this job! and you know what! i actually super am a nice person! i still don't want to be fucking recorded!

& it's so normalized that the comments are always so fucking ignorant like wow the brunette is so evil so mean so twisted just because she didn't smile at a random guy in an intersection. god forbid any person is in hiding due to an abusive situation. no, we need to see if they'll say good morning to a stranger approaching them. i am trying to walk towards my job i am not "unkind" just because i didn't notice your fucked up "social experiment". you fucking weirdo. stop doing this.

[tapmora]

6 Micro-SaaS Ideas You Can Build (Solo!) in a Weekend

Let’s be real: not everyone wants to raise VC money, build a startup with 10 employees, or grind for years before seeing a dollar.

Sometimes, you just want a simple, tiny software product that solves a problem, and pays you monthly. That’s the magic of Micro-SaaS.

And the best part? With the right idea (and tools like AI + no-code), you can launch one this weekend. Solo.

Here are 6 Micro-SaaS ideas that are beginner-friendly, useful, and (yep) monetizable.

1. AI-Powered Email Summarizer for Gmail

People are drowning in emails. Build a simple tool that connects to Gmail and uses GPT to summarize unread emails daily into bullet points.

Tech stack: Google API + GPT API + simple frontend Monetize: $5–10/month Target user: Busy professionals, founders, freelancers

2. “Quiet Booking” Tool for Freelancers

Let clients book time with you, without showing your full calendar. Only show available blocks you want, with intake questions.

Tech stack: TidyCal + automation tools like Zapier + Stripe No-code possible: Yep Monetize: Monthly or per-booking fee

3. Habit Tracker with AI Accountability

A dead-simple habit tracker that lets users set goals and receive weekly AI-generated encouragement or nudges based on their inputs.

Bonus: Offer a “chat with your habit coach” GPT chatbot.

4. AI Resume Tailor

Upload your resume + job post → get a tailored version instantly. Could work as a Chrome extension or web app.

People will 100% pay to skip tailoring resumes over and over.

5. Podcast Show Notes Generator

Upload an MP3 → get clean, SEO-optimized show notes + timestamps + quote pullouts. Add GPT auto-titling and summaries.

Great for: Indie podcasters and agencies

6. Local Deal Finder (Location-Based)

Use public APIs to pull local discounts/deals/events into one dashboard or newsletter. Let people filter by interests or location.

Think: “Skyscanner but for local life.”

Tools You Can Use:

No-code: Softr, Glide, Bubble, Carrd

AI: ChatGPT API, Claude, ElevenLabs

Payments: Gumroad, Lemon Squeezy, Stripe

Automation: Zapier, Make, Pipedream

Final Thoughts

You don’t need a co-founder. You don’t need $50K. You need:

a real problem

a simple solution

a weekend

and some caffeine (probably)

Launch it small. Charge early. Iterate later. Micro-SaaS isn’t just possible solo, it’s ideal solo.

[greatcomputerdelusion]

The Ultimate B2B Flight Booking Platform for Travel Agents

In today's competitive travel sector, success is determined by speed, price, and dependability. A dedicated B2B flight portal is no longer a luxury for travel agents trying to increase margins and automate flight bookings—it's a necessity. This is where Fly24hrs comes in. Fly24hrs, the ideal B2B airline booking platform exclusively for travel agents, provides agencies with the tools, prices, and support they need to succeed in the fast-paced world of air ticketing.

Who We Are – About Fly24hrs

Fly24hrs is a top B2B flight ticketing platform tailored exclusively for travel brokers. Our services are only available to travel professionals; we do not serve end users or retail customers. Whether you're a small travel agency, an independent ticketing agent, or a developing tour operator, Fly24hrs makes it simple to book local and international flights at affordable wholesale prices.

We assist travel agents remain ahead of the competition by providing an easy-to-use interface, strong booking tools, and access to exclusive B2B fares.

Why Travel Agents Choose Fly24hrs

Here’s what makes Fly24hrs the preferred B2B flight booking platform for thousands of agents:

1. Exclusive B2B Airfare Deals

Fly24hrs offers exceptional airfares that are not available to the general public. These fares are contracted directly from airlines or consolidators, giving you a pricing advantage.

2. Only for Travel Agents

Unlike many online travel sites that serve both B2B and B2C customers, Fly24hrs is exclusively B2B. This means we prioritize the needs of travel agents without any conflict of interest or direct competition with your company.

3. Real-Time Booking Engine

Our platform includes a fast and responsive booking engine that displays live availability, updated fares, and rapid confirmation. You can order tickets in minutes and service your customers quickly.

4. No Hidden Charges

Transparency is crucial. With Fly24hrs, you get exactly what you see. There are no hidden markups, service fees, or other expenses. You have control over your margins.

5. 24x7 Agent Support

We are aware that travel brokers work around the clock. That is why we provide specialist B2B assistance that is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week to assist you with inquiries, cancellations, adjustments, or group bookings.

Key Features of Fly24hrs B2B Flight Portal

Multi-Airline Search: Instantly compare fares from various domestic and international airlines.

PNR Management Tools: Easily manage, modify, or cancel bookings.

Markup Management: Set your own pricing rules to maximize profits.

White Label Option: Build your brand by using our white-label flight portal solution.

Detailed Reports: Get real-time insights into your sales, commissions, and customer trends.

GST/Commission Invoices: Simplified tax-compliant billing system for agents.

Our Global Airfare Inventory

With direct access to major GDS platforms and airline APIs, Fly24hrs brings you unbeatable deals on:

Domestic Flights within India – Book all major Indian carriers like Indigo, Air India, SpiceJet, Akasa Air, and more.

International Flights – Access special fares for major destinations in the USA, Europe, UAE, Southeast Asia, and beyond.

Group Bookings – Request customized quotations for groups, conferences, or special tours.

How to Get Started with Fly24hrs

Getting started with Fly24hrs is simple and hassle-free. Follow these steps:

Register as a Travel Agent: Fill out our registration form on www.fly24hrs.com.

Verification & Onboarding: Our team will verify your business details and provide login credentials.

Access Live Fares: Start booking immediately using our user-friendly dashboard.

Manage Your Earnings: Set your own markups and control pricing for each client.

Benefits for Growing Travel Agencies

Whether you're a one-person enterprise or a medium-sized agency, Fly24hrs provides unrivaled benefits:

Boost Your Profit Margins: Special net fares and customizable markups ensure higher earnings.

Save Time: Automate routine booking tasks and focus more on selling.

Serve Clients Better: Provide faster confirmations and real-time ticketing options.

Expand Your Offerings: Add more flight options to your portfolio — both domestic and international.

Why Choose a B2B-Only Platform?

Many travel agents struggle with B2C websites that compete for the same clients. At Fly24hrs, we never sell directly to customers. Our model is simple: empower agents rather than competing with them.

By choosing a B2B-only partner, you ensure:

No price wars with your supplier

No customer leakage

Complete control over service and delivery

Final Thoughts

In an era where technology is driving the travel industry, Fly24hrs stands out as a trusted B2B ticket booking platform designed specifically for travel agencies. We're dedicated to making flight bookings easier, lowering costs, and assisting travel professionals in a competitive industry.

If you are a travel agent seeking for a trustworthy partner to handle your flight ticketing needs, look no further than Fly24hrs. We're here to help you develop, one booking at a time, with our fast portal, exceptional fares, and agent-focused support.

Register now at b2b.fly24hrs.com and take your travel business to the next level!

[mostlysignssomeportents]

This day in history

Tomorrow (November 29), I'm at NYC's Strand Books with my novel The Lost Cause, a solarpunk tale of hope and danger that Rebecca Solnit called "completely delightful."

#15yrsago Peak Population: when will population growth stop, why, and how? https://www.alexsteffen.com/peak_population_and_sustainability

#15yrsago James Boyle’s “The Public Domain” — a brilliant copyfighter’s latest book, from a law prof who writes like a comedian https://memex.craphound.com/2008/11/29/james-boyles-the-public-domain-a-brilliant-copyfighters-latest-book-from-a-law-prof-who-writes-like-a-comedian/

#10yrsago NSA and Canadian spooks illegally spied on diplomats at Toronto G20 summit https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/new-snowden-docs-show-u-s-spied-during-g20-in-toronto-1.2442448

#10yrsago New CC licenses: tighter, shorter, more readable, more global https://creativecommons.org/Version4/

#10yrsago Berlusconi kicked out of Italian senate https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/nov/27/silvio-berlusconi-ousted-italian-parliament-tax-fraud-conviction

#5yrsago Sennheiser’s headphone drivers covertly changed your computer’s root of trust, leaving you vulnerable to undetectable attacks https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/sennheiser-headset-software-could-allow-man-in-the-middle-ssl-attacks/

#5yrsago New York City’s municipal debt collectors have forged an unholy alliance with sleazy subprime lenders https://www.bloomberg.com/confessions-of-judgment

#5yrsago Here’s how the Pentagon swindled Congress with $21 trillion worth of undocumented, untraceable, unaccounted for expenditures https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/pentagon-audit-budget-fraud/

#5yrsago The prosecutor who helped Jeffrey Epstein escape justice is now a Trump Cabinet member https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/article220097825.html

#5yrsago Reddit takes a stand against the EU’s plan to break the internet https://www.redditinc.com/blog/the-eu-copyright-directive-what-redditors-in-europe-need-to-know/

#5yrsago The secret history of science fiction’s women writers: The Future is Female! https://memex.craphound.com/2018/11/29/the-secret-history-of-science-fictions-women-writers-the-future-is-female/

#5yrsago Redaction ineptitude reveals names of Proud Boys’ self-styled new leaders https://splinternews.com/proud-boys-failed-to-redact-their-new-dumb-bylaws-and-a-1830700905

#5yrsago Redaction ineptitude reveals Facebook’s 2012 plan to sell Graph API access to user data for $250,000 https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2018/11/facebook-pondered-for-a-time-selling-access-to-user-data/

#5yrsago Google engineer calls for a walkout over China censorship and raises $200K strike fund in hours https://twitter.com/lizthegrey/status/1068208484053856256

#5yrsago Correlates of Trump voting: searches for erectile dysfunction, hair loss, how to get girls, penis enlargement, penis size, steroids, testosterone and Viagra https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2018/11/29/how-donald-trump-appeals-to-men-secretly-insecure-about-their-manhood/

#5yrsago Google’s secret project to build a censored Chinese search engine bypassed the company’s own security and privacy teams https://theintercept.com/2018/11/29/google-china-censored-search/

#5yrsago Mozilla pulls a popular paywall circumvention tool from Firefox add-ons store https://web.archive.org/web/20181130141509/https://github.com/iamadamdev/bypass-paywalls-firefox/issues/82

#1yrago The Big Four accounting firms are one (more) scandal away from collapse https://pluralistic.net/2022/11/29/great-andersens-ghost/#mene-mene-bezzle

[atplblog]

Price: [price_with_discount] (as of [price_update_date] - Details) [ad_1] DESCRIPTION This book is a workshop to create software using AI. A reader will be taken through a series of requirements and create a practical API from scratch. AI is without a doubt a productivity boost, and our goal is to help you maximize the boost by writing prompts effectively to generate, refactor, test, and review code. This book is also a modern take on software design fundamentals. To be able to scrutinize AI-generated code and to be able to guide AI effectively to better results, one should understand the theory behind software design. It starts with basics like clean function design and object-oriented principles, then advances to SOLID principles, design patterns, and Onion architecture. Readers will learn essential testing methods, including unit, integration, and acceptance tests using BDD and Specflow. The guide covers API development, focusing on security, validation, error handling, and external system integration. It also explains CI/CD pipelines using Azure DevOps, including build and deployment pipelines with YAML configurations. Lastly, this book teaches us to embrace the changes in software requirements. The end goal is to teach a reader how to implement changes in software with minimum change to existing lines of code.You will be well-equipped to leverage AI as a valuable asset in your software development toolbox.WHAT YOU WILL LEARN● The fundamentals of software design like KISS, OOP, SOLID, and key design Patterns.● Use Effective prompt engineering for generating code, refactoring, testing, and reviewing.● Code review both for human and AI-generated code.● Design which minimizes changes when new requirements are introduced.● Build .NET REST Web API with tests.● Build CI/CD pipelines to deploy to Azure.WHO THIS BOOK IS FORThis book is intended for software developers, aspiring programmers, and students in computer science or related fields who have a basic understanding of programming concepts and are eager to deepen their knowledge of software design principles and best practices. Publisher ‏ : ‎ Bpb Publications (31 December 2024) Language ‏ : ‎ English Paperback ‏ : ‎ 288 pages ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 9365892422 ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-9365892420 Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 499 g Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 19.05 x 1.65 x 23.5 cm Country of Origin ‏ : ‎ India Best Sellers Rank: #317,777 in Books (See Top 100 in Books) #69 in Object-Oriented Software Design #136 in Object-Oriented Design #523 in Software Design & Engineering Customer Reviews: 5.0 5.0 out of 5 stars 1 rating var dpAcrHasRegisteredArcLinkClickAction; P.

when('A', 'ready').execute(function(A) if (dpAcrHasRegisteredArcLinkClickAction !== true) dpAcrHasRegisteredArcLinkClickAction = true; A.declarative( 'acrLink-click-metrics', 'click', "allowLinkDefault": true , function (event) if (window.ue) ); ); P.when('A', 'cf').execute(function(A) A.declarative('acrStarsLink-click-metrics', 'click', "allowLinkDefault" : true , function(event) if(window.ue) ue.count("acrStarsLinkWithPopoverClickCount", (ue.count("acrStarsLinkWithPopoverClickCount") ); ); [ad_2]

[travelscrape]

Unveiling Market Shifts Through Scraping 2025 Travel Data Trends

Introduction

The travel and tourism industry is set for a technological leap in 2025, driven by data scraping, artificial intelligence (AI), and predictive analytics. As travel resumes full momentum post-pandemic and consumer behavior evolves dynamically, stakeholders are increasingly relying on scraping 2025 travel data trends to stay competitive. Whether it's forecasting demand, tailoring offers, or benchmarking against rivals, timely access to accurate data plays a critical role.

One significant development is the integration of AI in travel pricing , which enables companies to understand micro-movements in pricing and adapt rapidly to changes in demand. As more platforms scrape flight and hotel pricing across online travel agencies (OTAs), metasearch engines, and direct websites, real-time intelligence becomes the cornerstone of strategy. This report delves into how businesses utilize data scraping for competitive intelligence, examines key trends shaping 2025 travel data, and presents quantitative insights and analysis to help travel companies future-proof their operations.

Why Travel Data Scraping Matters in 2025?

The travel ecosystem is becoming hyper-competitive. OTAs, airlines, hotels, car rental companies, and tourism boards are all turning to data scraping as a foundational tool for gaining a strategic advantage. By aggregating pricing, availability, reviews, and occupancy data from public-facing sources, businesses can deploy future of travel data scraping models that drive operational efficiency, consumer targeting, and revenue growth. Among the most disruptive innovations is dynamic pricing in travel, where AI-powered systems adjust rates based on real-time inputs like weather, events, competitor rates, and demand surges. Data scraping enables continuous price monitoring to ensure alignment with market expectations and trends.

Travel Data Trends Shaping 2025

Below is a table summarizing the Top Travel Data Trends in 2025:

Table 1: Key Travel Data Trends in 2025

These trends reflect a broader shift toward data-driven travel strategies, where businesses no longer rely solely on internal sources or surveys. Instead, they turn to structured, real-time scraped data to make crucial decisions on pricing, marketing, and customer experience.

OTA & Airline Pricing Analysis

Scraping real-time data from OTAs and airline platforms provides granular visibility into pricing behavior. Companies can now access OTA pricing insights to compare how fares fluctuate across platforms like Expedia, Booking.com, and Skyscanner.

A closer look at scraped data reveals significant disparities in airfare and hotel prices depending on booking windows, geography, and demand forecasts.

Table 2: Average Price Variation in OTA Listings vs Direct Sites (2025 Q1 Sample)

From the table above, it’s evident that scraping data allows stakeholders to better understand predictive travel analytics, adjust promotions, and offer better deals ahead of time. Businesses looking to adopt Flight Price Data Intelligence benefit from knowing how competitor pricing shifts across various booking horizons.

Insights from the Scraped Data

Price Sensitivity Increases as Booking Window Narrows: Travelers are more willing to accept higher prices close to travel dates. This is especially useful when crafting urgent promotions for last-minute bookings.

OTAs Tend to Inflate Prices: On average, OTA prices are 5–10% higher than direct bookings, especially within a 1–5 day window. This gives airlines and hotel brands a strategic edge when using scraped data to develop rate parity or offer direct-only discounts.

Review Scores Impact Pricing: Properties with higher ratings command 20% more on average. Scraping Hotel Price & Reviews helps identify which factors (cleanliness, service, location) are driving premium pricing.

Application of AI & APIs in 2025 Travel Scraping

As scraping scales up, companies are investing in AI-powered travel scraping tools that not only collect data but also clean, tag, and derive actionable insights from it. These tools integrate seamlessly with Travel Web Scraping Service providers to ensure 24/7 monitoring and price intelligence.

Many developers now compare travel APIs vs scraping , where APIs are ideal for structured access but often limited by rate caps, access restrictions, or outdated data. On the other hand, scraping provides unrestricted access to publicly visible, real-time data from thousands of sources—ideal for predictive models and competitive benchmarking.

Advanced analytics platforms now embed data from Travel Scraping API solutions, helping teams evaluate patterns such as seasonality, occupancy probability, and conversion-linked pricing strategies. Scraping is not just a tool—but a necessity to keep up with evolving market dynamics.

2025 Forecast: The Rise of Predictive Pricing

Scraped data feeds into Predictive Pricing in 2025, where algorithms can:

Estimate price elasticity per traveler segment

Anticipate demand spikes (holidays, festivals, weather disruptions)

Identify optimal pricing points for different lengths of stay or routes

Such precision unlocks dynamic bundling, flexible cancellations, and automated discounts—creating higher margins with lower manual oversight.

Future of Travel Intelligence

With 2025 poised to be a record year for global tourism, organizations that leverage scraping and AI will emerge as market leaders. The integration of Hotel Data Scraping with AI, real-time insights, and intelligent systems will offer not just a competitive edge—but a new norm.

AI chatbots offering live booking recommendations based on scraped price fluctuations

Visualization tools showing city-level pricing heatmaps

Consolidated dashboards aggregating scraped hotel, airline, and review data in one frame

All these innovations are made possible by continuous access to structured scraping and automated updates via tools that scrape pricing intelligence pipelines.

Conclusion

As we approach 2025, the integration of travel tech 2025 data scraping with AI and analytics defines the future of travel commerce. The ability to collect, process, and act on real-time market intelligence is now critical for survival in a rapidly evolving travel landscape.

Companies equipped with airline and hotel data insights will be able to identify pricing gaps, optimize availability, and improve traveler satisfaction at every touchpoint. Similarly, AI engines fueled by scraped content will allow for AI travel optimization, leading to better inventory turnover and marketing ROI.

With increasing competition, fast-changing consumer expectations, and mounting pricing pressure, real-time pricing travel data stands as the single most valuable resource for strategic travel decisions in 2025 and beyond.

Ready to elevate your travel business with cutting-edge data insights? Get in touch with Travel Scrape today to explore how our end-to-end data solutions can uncover new revenue streams, enhance your offerings, and strengthen your competitive edge in the travel market.

Source : https://www.travelscrape.com/scraping-2025-travel-data-market-trends.php

[mr-elementle]

OH this isn't AI, AI bookcovers would be less stock photo, this is because A human being had to set it up badly. I know because i have done it, so basically the way a lot of these stores work if that they take public domain books and sell them for a profit with no upfront cost, since you know, they're public domain, hoping someone will be stupid enough to pay for them. the thing is you still need a legally distinct cover that's more visually appealing that just text on a colored background

but you have THOUSANDS of books you're pulling this scam with, so you want to automate the process (keep in mind this is pre generative AI, this post is quite old, modern ones with ai do it a different way) so what you do is your create a template like this

(this is in calibre, btw)

you can see i have several premade templates, I mostly use it for fanfic but basically I have a collection of images, and it applies the title, author, tags, ect, to the image and formats it automatically, and if i want a different style, here's the same book using my fanfic style

What happens with these tonally fucked book covers is that rather than individually setting the images like i've done here, they've used a program to just search a database of free to use stock images for the title of the book and automatically applied the first result to their template, so the search term "A modest proposal" brings up images of proposals

for example using pixabay because it's free this is the cover it would give me using my template I just made pulling the image from a stock photo source

for a fun game, open a stock photo site and type in the name of your favorite book in the search bar, the first image is it's new cover

unfortunately this is a dying art, as this still takes a bit of work making the template, setting up the api for the stock photos, etc. and now with ai these scam publishers (well i guess its not really a scam but whatever) are just using ai, compare this version of animal farm from this year which uses ai

vs this one from further back that uses a template and image search, notable this one clearly just did a google image search and pulled the result because the image is not a stock photo, it's waddles from gravity falls

im dying over this thread of algorithmically-generated/otherwise low-effort Kindle covers

[full-stackmobiledeveloper]

Navigating the MaaS Landscape: Key Business Models and Revenue Streams for Integrated Mobility Platforms

Urban transportation is rapidly evolving, with Mobility as a Service (MaaS) leading the charge. This innovative model unifies public transit, ride-hailing, bike-sharing, and more into a single digital platform for planning, booking, and payment. With solutions powered by experts like CQLsys, MaaS offers a smarter, sustainable alternative to private car ownership—making city travel seamless and user-focused.

MaaS is gaining momentum thanks to key trends like urbanization, smartphone adoption, and the demand for on-demand mobility. Advances in AI, machine learning, and real-time analytics enable smarter routing and personalized travel. At the same time, global sustainability goals and smart city initiatives are fueling investment in integrated, eco-friendly transport solutions.

But how do these ambitious integrated mobility platforms, often hailed as the future of urban transit, truly sustain themselves? The answer lies in a nuanced understanding of their business models and innovative revenue streams. Whether it's building a new taxi booking app development solution, integrating ride sharing app features, or even developing an uber clone app, understanding the underlying economic framework is vital. This blog will delve into the core business models driving MaaS and explore the diverse ways these platforms generate revenue in this dynamic landscape.

Core Business Models in MaaS

The success of a MaaS platform hinges on its ability to create value for both users and mobility providers. Several core business models have emerged:

The Integrator Model: This is arguably the most common and foundational model. MaaS integrators act as intermediaries, combining offerings from various transport service providers (TSPs) into a single user interface. Their value lies in technical integration, contract management, and financial clearing.

How it works: The MaaS platform connects with public transit agencies, ride-hailing companies, bike-share operators, etc., through APIs. Users access all these services through the MaaS app, and the platform handles the backend coordination.

Key Value Proposition: Convenience for users (single app, single payment) and expanded reach for TSPs.

The Operator Model: Some MaaS platforms take a more direct role, packaging and delivering mobility offerings to end-users themselves. While they may not own all the vehicles, they actively manage the service delivery. Public transport agencies, for example, are increasingly acting as MaaS operators, integrating third-party services into their existing frameworks.

How it works: The platform curates specific mobility packages or services directly for the user, potentially with their own branding and customer service.

Key Value Proposition: Greater control over the user experience and potentially tailored offerings.

The B2B/Corporate MaaS Model: Beyond direct consumer offerings, MaaS platforms are finding traction in the business-to-business space. Companies can offer white-label MaaS solutions to their employees, providing mobility budgets, tracking carbon footprints, and streamlining expense management for business travel. This is particularly relevant for a taxi app development company looking to offer enterprise solutions.

How it works: A MaaS provider partners with an organization to offer a customized mobility solution for its workforce.

Key Value Proposition: Reduced corporate travel costs, improved employee satisfaction, and support for sustainability goals.

The "Super App" Model: Drawing inspiration from Asian super apps like WeChat, some MaaS platforms aim to become a comprehensive ecosystem for urban living, extending beyond just mobility to include services like food delivery, ticketing for events, and more.

How it works: The MaaS platform leverages its user base and infrastructure to offer a wide array of services, deepening user engagement.

Key Value Proposition: Ultimate convenience for users, increased stickiness, and diverse revenue opportunities.

Key Revenue Streams

Integrated mobility platforms can tap into a variety of revenue streams, often combining several for a robust financial model:

Subscription Models: This is a highly anticipated and frequently discussed revenue stream. Users pay a recurring fee (monthly, annually) for bundled access to various mobility services, often with discounts compared to individual bookings.

Examples: MaaS Global's Whim app offers different subscription tiers, from basic public transport access to "all-you-can-eat" plans that include taxis and car rentals.

Benefits: Predictable income, strong customer loyalty, and encouragement of modal shift away from private car ownership.

Commission from Transactions: MaaS platforms can earn a percentage or a fixed fee on each transaction facilitated through their platform. This is a prevalent model, particularly for platforms acting as resellers or aggregators, common in taxi application development and ride sharing app platforms.

How it works: When a user books a ride or rents a vehicle through the MaaS app, the platform takes a small cut of the fare.

Benefits: Directly linked to usage, scalable with increasing adoption.

Pay-as-you-go / Individual Ticket Sales: While aiming for integrated packages, MaaS platforms also offer individual ticket purchases for single journeys across various modes. This is a standard feature for any taxi booking mobile app development.

How it works: Users simply pay for each ride or service as they use it, similar to traditional booking methods, but through a unified interface.

Benefits: Lower barrier to entry for new users, caters to infrequent travelers.

Data Monetization: The sheer volume of mobility data collected by these platforms (traffic patterns, user preferences, demand hot spots) is a goldmine. This anonymized and aggregated data can be sold or licensed to urban planners, city authorities, advertising companies, or even insurance providers.

Examples: Providing insights to optimize public transport routes or identify areas for new shared mobility services.

Benefits: High-margin revenue, valuable insights for urban development.

Advertising and Partnerships: Similar to other digital platforms, MaaS apps can generate revenue through targeted advertising within the application or by partnering with local businesses (e.g., offering discounts on coffee near a public transport hub).

How it works: Displaying relevant ads or promotional offers to users based on their location, preferences, or journey patterns.

Benefits: Diversifies revenue, creates additional value for users.

Premium Features and Value-Added Services: Offering enhanced functionalities for an additional fee can attract users willing to pay for extra convenience or personalization.

Examples: Priority booking, personalized route recommendations, seamless integration with smart home devices, or access to exclusive loyalty programs.

Benefits: Increases average revenue per user (ARPU), caters to diverse user needs.

White-Labeling and Licensing: MaaS platform providers can license their technology and expertise to other organizations (e.g., public transport authorities, large corporations) who wish to launch their own integrated mobility solutions. This is where services from a taxi booking app development company become crucial. They can provide the foundational technology for ride hailing apps, helping businesses build taxi app solutions or even offering readymade taxi app options. Companies looking for a robust taxi app development solution, including features for a carpool app or an app like Ola, can benefit greatly.

How it works: The core MaaS platform infrastructure is provided to a client who then customizes it for their specific needs and branding. This often includes solutions for taxi app development, ride sharing app functionality, carpool app integration, and even uber clone apps. Businesses looking to create taxi app or an app like Ola often leverage these white-label services. For those seeking comprehensive taxi app development services, including uber taxi app features, white-label solutions offer a swift entry into the market.

Benefits: Scalable revenue model, expands market reach without direct operational overhead, and allows for rapid deployment of a branded taxi booking mobile app development solution.

The Path Forward: Sustainability and Collaboration

Navigating the MaaS landscape successfully requires more than just innovative technology; it demands sustainable business models built on strong partnerships. Collaboration between public and private sectors is crucial, as is a focus on user-centric design and continuous adaptation to evolving urban needs.

As cities become smarter and more connected, integrated mobility platforms will play an increasingly vital role in shaping our urban future. By strategically combining diverse business models and cultivating multiple revenue streams, MaaS providers can not only achieve financial viability but also drive positive societal impact, leading to more efficient, equitable, and environmentally friendly transportation for all.

[sphinxshreya]

How iOS Application Development Powers High-Performance Mobile Apps

In a world where smartphones dominate, building seamless and high-performance mobile applications is no longer optional—it’s a necessity. Among the leading platforms, iOS application development has carved a niche for delivering speed, security, and an elite user experience. With over 1.5 billion active Apple devices globally, businesses that ignore iOS users risk missing out on a massive, high-value market segment.

Why iOS Is Still the Premium Choice

Apple users are known to spend more, expect more, and remain loyal to apps that meet their expectations. This is why iOS application development remains the go-to choice for startups and enterprises looking to build polished mobile apps with maximum ROI. iOS offers excellent performance, consistent design standards, and tight integration with hardware—making it ideal for applications where performance, UX, and security matter.

A strong Guide to iOS App Development is essential to navigate the tools, frameworks, and requirements involved in building a successful iOS application. From mastering Xcode to understanding Swift, developers must build with Apple’s guidelines in mind to ensure App Store approval and smooth operation across devices.

What Makes iOS Development Different?

Compared to other platforms, iOS application development is known for its uniform hardware ecosystem, which allows developers to optimize performance easily. While Android development involves a variety of screen sizes and OS versions, Apple’s controlled environment ensures that iOS apps are more stable and predictable.

However, one common challenge developers face is the requirement of macOS for using Xcode, Apple’s official IDE. That said, many aspiring developers ask: How to Develop iOS Apps on Windows? While Apple doesn’t officially support it, workarounds such as using virtual machines, macOS cloud services (like MacStadium), or third-party tools like Flutter and React Native have made it more accessible for Windows users to start building iOS apps.

Key Features That Power Performance

The performance edge in iOS application development comes from Apple’s robust APIs and consistent hardware-software optimization. Swift, the modern programming language for iOS, is both fast and safe. Combined with powerful frameworks like SwiftUI and Combine, developers can create reactive, smooth, and intuitive user interfaces.

For eCommerce and fintech apps, integrating seamless payment options is critical. Apple Pay is a powerful tool in this ecosystem, and following Quick Steps for Integrating Apple Pay into iOS App can ensure frictionless transactions. Apple Pay not only boosts conversion rates but also improves customer trust through biometric authentication and end-to-end encryption.

Book an appointment with our mobile experts to discuss your iOS app idea and see how we can turn it into a high-performance product tailored to Apple users.

Benefits of Choosing iOS for Business Apps

Whether you're building an internal enterprise app or launching a public product, iOS application development offers several unmatched benefits:

Enhanced security: Built-in security features protect both user data and app logic.

Higher ROI: iOS users are more likely to pay for premium apps or in-app purchases.

Faster development time: With fewer devices and OS versions to support, debugging and optimization are more efficient.

Loyal user base: Apple users stick with their ecosystem and appreciate consistent app experiences.

If you’re unsure about who can deliver your project, learning How to Find The Best iOS App Development Companies? can save you time and money. Look for firms with verified portfolios, strong App Store results, and expertise in Swift, UI/UX, and security compliance.

Challenges and How to Overcome Them

Of course, iOS application development isn’t without its challenges. Strict App Store review guidelines, frequent OS updates, and licensing limitations can slow down your process if not handled properly. However, working with an experienced development team that understands Apple’s ecosystem can help you navigate these hurdles with ease.

Another important factor to consider is device compatibility. While Apple’s hardware is relatively uniform, testing across devices like iPhones, iPads, and even Apple Watches ensures a seamless multi-device experience.

The Future of iOS App Development

As Apple continues to evolve its ecosystem with tools like Vision Pro, ARKit, and HealthKit, iOS application development is becoming even more exciting. Developers now have the chance to build immersive experiences, integrate with wearables, and support next-gen features like on-device AI and machine learning.

Thanks to Apple’s ongoing emphasis on privacy, performance, and premium experience, iOS apps are poised to remain ahead of the curve in quality and innovation.

Final Thoughts

Whether you're targeting tech-savvy professionals, retail shoppers, or enterprise users, iOS application development provides the tools and platform to build apps that truly perform. With a loyal user base, high standards, and a focus on premium user experiences, iOS apps continue to lead the way in mobile innovation.

Ready to bring your iOS app vision to life? Book an appointment with our experts and start your journey toward building a high-performance app for Apple’s ecosystem.

[xaltius]

ChatGPT vs. Google Bard – A Comparative Guide to AI Chatbots

The rapid evolution of Artificial Intelligence has brought powerful conversational tools into our daily lives. At the forefront of this revolution stand two prominent names: OpenAI's ChatGPT and Google's Bard (now powered by Gemini). Both have captivated users globally with their ability to understand and generate human-like text, but they approach the world with different strengths, integrations, and philosophies.

For anyone looking to harness the power of AI for creative tasks, research, coding, or simply a knowledgeable companion, understanding the nuances between ChatGPT and Google Bard is crucial. Let's break down their key differences to help you choose the best AI chatbot for your needs in 2025.

The Core: Underlying Models and Data Access

The fundamental distinction lies in the AI models that power them and how they access information:

ChatGPT:

Underlying Models: Primarily built on OpenAI's GPT (Generative Pre-trained Transformer) family, with the latest paid versions leveraging advanced models like GPT-4o. The free version typically uses GPT-3.5 Turbo.

Data Access: Traditionally, ChatGPT's knowledge was limited by its training data cut-off (e.g., April 2023 for GPT-4). However, paid versions (ChatGPT Plus, Pro, Enterprise) now integrate web Browse capabilities (often via Bing search) to access real-time information, though this might require explicit activation for each query.

Training: Trained on a diverse dataset including books, Wikipedia, web pages, and licensed data, focusing on broad language understanding and generation.

Google Bard (powered by Gemini):

Underlying Models: Powered by Google's proprietary Gemini family of models (previously LaMDA). This includes various versions of Gemini, optimized for different tasks.

Data Access: Bard's key differentiator is its seamless, real-time access to Google Search and other Google services. This means it can almost instantaneously pull current, up-to-date information directly from the web, making it highly reliable for recent events and factual queries.

Training: Trained on Google's vast datasets, public forums, and web content, with a strong emphasis on conversational and up-to-date information retrieval.

Key Differentiators: Where Each Chatbot Shines

1. Real-time Information & Sourcing:

Bard's Edge: This is Bard's undisputed advantage. Its direct integration with Google Search allows it to provide highly current information and often cite its sources, which is invaluable for research, news updates, and fact-checking. This is particularly beneficial for local context and trends in many regions.

ChatGPT's Approach: While paid versions of ChatGPT can browse the web, it's not as inherently integrated or seamless as Bard's real-time access. For the free version, knowledge is still limited by its training data cut-off, making it less reliable for current events.

2. Creative Writing & Long-Form Content:

ChatGPT's Strength: Many users find ChatGPT (especially GPT-4o) excels in creative writing, storytelling, generating detailed articles, poems, scripts, and maintaining narrative consistency over longer texts. It often offers a more imaginative and fluid writing style.

Bard's Style: Bard can handle creative tasks, but its responses tend to be more concise, factual, and direct. It's often preferred for short-form content like taglines, captions, or summaries. While it can generate narratives, it might sometimes lack the depth or consistent tone of ChatGPT for extended pieces.

3. Coding Assistance:

ChatGPT's Depth: ChatGPT is highly capable in code generation, debugging, explaining complex code snippets, and offering step-by-step solutions across various programming languages. It's a robust tool for developers seeking hands-on assistance.

Bard's Contextual Help: Bard also provides valuable coding support. Its real-time web access can be advantageous for retrieving the most current documentation, API references, and relevant coding resources, making it good for quick lookups and staying updated.

4. Multimodality & Input/Output Options:

Bard's Versatility: Bard offers a more expansive range of input options (typing, microphone for speech-to-text, image uploads via Google Lens) and output options (text-to-speech, incorporating images directly into responses, and showing related images from Google Search).

ChatGPT's Advancements: With GPT-4o, ChatGPT has significantly advanced its multimodal capabilities, handling text, image, and audio inputs and outputs natively. It can now generate images within the chat (leveraging DALL-E 3) and perform image editing.

5. Integration with Ecosystems:

Bard's Google Ecosystem Advantage: Bard's seamless integration with Google Workspace apps (Gmail, Docs, Drive, Maps, YouTube) is a massive draw, especially for users already embedded in the Google ecosystem. You can easily export responses to Google Docs or Gmail drafts.

ChatGPT's Broad Reach & Customization: ChatGPT offers broader third-party integrations, often via plugins (for paid users) or APIs. For enterprise users, ChatGPT Enterprise provides advanced customization, dedicated instances, and stronger data privacy, allowing for tailored AI solutions across diverse software environments. Custom GPTs also allow for highly personalized AI assistants.

6. User Experience & Features:

Bard: Often has a cleaner, more search-like interface. It can generate multiple drafts of a response and allows users to easily edit their prompts for refinement. It also provides the convenient "Google it" button to verify its answers.

ChatGPT: Features a straightforward chat-like interface designed for fluid, continuous conversations. It emphasizes conversation retention and allows for custom instructions to tailor its persona and responses over time.

Which One Should You Choose?

The "better" AI chatbot truly depends on your primary use case:

Choose Google Bard if:

You prioritize real-time, up-to-date information and need factual accuracy for current events, news, or research.

You are heavily invested in the Google Workspace ecosystem and want seamless integration with Gmail, Docs, Drive, etc.

You appreciate multimodal inputs and and outputs, including image analysis and the ability to incorporate visuals into responses.

You prefer a tool that can cite its sources for easier verification.

You are looking for a free, highly capable AI assistant with continuous web access.

Choose ChatGPT if:

You need a powerful tool for creative writing, long-form content generation, or complex brainstorming.

You are a developer looking for in-depth coding assistance, debugging, and code explanations.

You value customization and extensibility through custom GPTs, plugins, or API integrations.

You require advanced reasoning capabilities for complex analytical or problem-solving tasks.

You are considering an enterprise-grade solution with robust security and privacy features (ChatGPT Enterprise).

The Evolving Landscape: A Future of Specialization and Synergy

Both ChatGPT and Google Bard are rapidly evolving, with new features and model advancements being released regularly. The competition between OpenAI and Google continues to push the boundaries of what AI chatbots can do.

Ultimately, there's no need for an exclusive choice. Many users globally are finding immense value in leveraging both chatbots strategically: using Bard for factual, real-time queries and Google-integrated tasks, and turning to ChatGPT for creative projects, deep content generation, or specialized coding challenges. The future of AI assistance is likely to be a blend of specialized tools working in harmony, empowering users with unprecedented intelligence and efficiency. So, why not try both and see which one becomes your go-to AI sidekick?

[paratransitsoftwarebyhbss]

Why Microtransit Software Is the Backbone of Smart City Growth in 2025

As urban centers grow more complex, the need for adaptive, technology-driven mobility has never been greater. In 2025, city planners and transit agencies are increasingly turning to microtransit software as the foundation for smart, connected urban ecosystems.

Supporting the Smart City Movement

Smart cities rely on data and connectivity to enhance urban living—and transportation is at the heart of it. Qryde’s public transportation software integrates seamlessly with IoT systems, traffic sensors, and smart infrastructure to support real-time transit decisions.

Using cloud-based intelligence, Qryde’s microtransit software helps agencies reduce traffic congestion, lower emissions, and connect underserved areas—all while giving riders a seamless digital experience.

The New Standard in Transit Flexibility

Unlike fixed-route systems, microtransit adapts as the city changes. With Qryde, agencies can:

Adjust routes dynamically

Add or remove service zones in real-time

Redeploy vehicles based on live rider demand

This level of responsiveness supports the “15-minute city” model—where essential services are accessible within a short commute—by closing transit gaps and improving equity.

Plug-and-Play for Urban Developers

Qryde’s platform is modular and easy to integrate with third-party systems. Developers of smart city infrastructure can plug in Qryde APIs to connect with:

Smart traffic management systems

EV charging networks

Urban mobility data platforms

This makes Qryde ideal for public-private partnerships and city-wide deployments.

Optimized for Environmental Goals

Cities working toward net-zero goals in 2025 are using Qryde to reduce vehicle idling, increase EV usage, and eliminate low-ridership fixed routes. Microtransit’s dynamic nature allows for more efficient service with fewer resources.

Qryde’s support for electric fleet scheduling makes it even easier for agencies to meet emissions targets while maintaining high-quality service.

Empowering Riders with Better Access

Qryde is designed for modern mobility needs—riders can book rides, track vehicles, and receive updates through the app, website, or call center. This makes it accessible to all age groups and tech abilities.

Inclusion is built in, not added on.

The Infrastructure of Tomorrow’s Mobility

With cities expanding and evolving rapidly, infrastructure must be digital, flexible, and scalable. Qryde’s microtransit software gives transit agencies the tools to build smart, sustainable systems that work for everyone.

Explore how Qryde is powering smart city transportation at Qryde.com.