I wanted to throw out a couple quick links to keep you satisfied…excuse the typos and poor grammar. I just wanted to get this up ASAP. Back to regularly scheduled shopping search coverage soon.
-Check out MyProductAdvisor
Even with wikis and buying guides, I don’t think the shopping comparison engines really help consumers figure out what to buy. Part of the reason is probably that the shopping engines aren’t incentivized to do so…in a lot of cases, they are looking to monetize the user as efficiently as possible. MyProductAdvisor is an unbiased service which advises consumers on selecting the right Autos, Digital Cameras,Cell Phones (just launched), TVs, and PDAs. I used the TV advisor system and was thoroughly impressed at the comprehensive nature of the advisor. There are no ads on the site and MyProductAdvisor is not a shopping comparison engine (although they partner with PriceGrabber on the back end). The parent company, Market Insight Corporation, acts as a real-time intelligence panel, selling the data to manufacturers.
-The Farhad show is running over at Electronic Retailing Magazine
Farhad Mohit, Shopzilla’s Chief Product Officer, is on the cover of this month’s issue.
-As merchant reputations are a hot subject right now (and I’ll have a post or two in the next week about the topic), I wanted to highlight Rapleaf as an interesting model. Reminds me of a ‘stealth’ start up I worked on in 2001 called Project Napa. Check out what Michael Arrington and Matt Marshall have said about the company.
-Last week RootMarkets announced it had closed a round of financing which included an investment from the NYTimes (via PaidContent). Congrats to the Root team!
-Today Openlist announced it was acquired by Marchex. I’m an avid Openlist user. More at VerticalSearch and, more importantly, Greg Sterling’s blog. Congrats to the Openlist team!
-A quick shout out to Garrett French at Search Engine Lowdown. He consistently has great coverage of the search space.
-Become.com launched a ‘grid view’ for displaying product search results. When you mouse over the results, you get additional information and links to compare prices, add to favorites, and research. Here’s an example for toasters. Nice to see an engine trying something new in terms of UI.
-Mini-Microsoft is taking a break
I love reading Mini-Microsoft…sad to see the site’s owner will not be posting regularly. Sunday’s Seattle Times (found through Frank Barnako) has more.
Hey Brian, thanks for the props!
Keep rocking the shopping space
Best,
Garrett