SideStep's competitors are equally incensed. I'm talking to my engineers about how to block SideStep from doing this. But he says privacy and fairness concerns kept them from doing so. Nonsense, says SideStep's vice president of marketing, Phil Carpenter. To be candid, I think this is a non-issue.
Carpenter also brushes aside concerns about privacy.
We're not searching another Web site. The information is being passed between the client and us. SideStep is quick to point out that its accusers aren't completely innocent. Suppliers have complained that these kinds of search engines essentially steal fares off their sites, adding more lookers than bookers to their pages. Still, there are legitimate issues that SideStep's critics have brought up.