As reported on the MSN Shopping Insider blog, MSN Shopping results now show up on MSN.com searches for select keywords like digital cameras, playstation, and camcorder. These results are ‘Instant Answers’ and similar to Yahoo! Shortcuts, Google’s integration of Froogle listings, Ask’s use of PriceGrabber results, and AOL’s use of Shopzilla results…or as Danny Sullivan would say, vertical creeping into search. My translation: getting listed in the shopping comparison engines is becoming more important as the organic results are pushed below the fold.
At this time, the breadth and depth of MSN Shopping Instant Answers leaves a lot to be desired. Searches for iPod, XBox 360, and Nikon Coolpix all returned regular results. Still, it’s nice to see MSN.com give MSN Shopping a little respect…maybe MSN will also add a ‘Shopping’ link above the search field…I have to think that Shopping monetizes a bit better than Encarta.
According to the post, MSN Shopping Instant Answers “provides the top three most popular products, attributes, and prices from the enormous MSN Shopping product catalog.”
Here’s a search for playstation:
