Intense testing and learning has been part of Expedia's strategy for some time with initiatives such as its airline and hotel reviews emerging as part of the process.
But this is just one of two paths the online travel giant is following to stay relevant and on top of fast-changing consumers.
In fact, Expedia managing director for Central Europe Andreas Nau admits, perhaps surprisingly, that companies get to a point where business begins "flattening out a little" and adds there's no point in being defensive about it.
He was comparing life in 1996 when there was only about 100,000 websites and no Google but Expedia is now:
"Coming to a point where we realise the business model will have to change because we don't believe the Internet will be around for much longer."
This is a reference to Google's Eric Schmidt's musings earlier this year on how, going forward, the Internet as we know it will disappear because we'll be so connected we won't even sense it.
So, from an Expedia point of view that means two paths which Nau describes as "brutal market consolidation and innovation."
The consolidation speaks for itself in the string of deals Expedia and others have announced in the past couple of years and the innovation is developments such as Scratchpad which, incidentally, has led to a three-times greater likelihood for users to convert on the site.
Nau was speaking at the TTI's Digital Transformation session in London this week on consumer trends, how much people have going on around them and the expectation that technology will do the things they don't want to do themselves.
"There's so much out there that new generations would rather be doing other things than booking travel on our site. We have studied intensively what is fundamentally changing so we need to be in a position to speak to a customer where he is and in the way he wants."
All part of the "test and learn" strategy, Expedia says it is now making "instant marketplace data" available on the site to alert travellers if the flight price has gone up or down or if it's likely to increase in price in the next few days.
Nau says Expedia has also developed some technology for hotels with Scratchpad-like features which is designed to act like a marketplace and inform them if competitors have dropped prices or how many more bookings they might attract if they adjust pricing by say, 3%.
He adds that data is enabling the company to provide so much more insight and, back to the fish analogies, points to 'Jiro Dreams of Sushi' (see below) as how Expedia wants to think of its product for customers.
NB: Goldfish image via Shutterstock.