New rating for web sites

Keynote Systems launched the Internet Performance Authority, which it called the first web transaction performance index for the online, hotel and travel agency industry. The company said the index, known as “The Keynote Travel and Hospitality Web Transaction Index Suite,” was the first of its kind to measure the speed and reliability of leading travel and hospitality sites. The survey found the speediest sites in airline, hotel and online travel agency categories were Continental, Intercontinental and Hotels.com. They had response times of 6.97, 8.27 and 18.05 seconds to complete transactions. The best success rates for a transaction in each category were for Southwest, Radisson and Ortibiz. Their percentages were 100, 99.2 and 98.82. The worst performers in the airline category took an average of 25.43 seconds to complete a transaction and had a success rate of 88.48%. For online travel agencies, the worst performers averaged 38.41 seconds to complete a transaction and succeeded only 91.32% of the time. Report by David Wilkening