Online Price Comparison Services

After reading Sean O'Rourke's review of the new MSN Shopping (beta) site at Organized Shopping Blog, I thought I'd mention a few other comparison shopping services that are available. There are literally hundreds of them, including some for very specific product niches. But for general shopping, try these:

• Froogle - owned by Google (still in beta)
• InStore - owned by AOL
• Shopping.com - DealTime + Epinions = Shopping.com
• PriceGrabber - shopping services for US, Canada, UK, Mexico, and Brazil
• MySimon - part of the CNet Network

The primary feature of these services is to compare prices at different online stores. They also often provide product reviews and reviews and ratings of the different merchants. Using one or more of these services can help you find the product you're looking for at the best price, available from trustworthy online shops.

I put several of the comparison shopper services to the test today, and was quite happy with the results. A CD that I could've easily paid $18-20 for, I found for $13.50. A book that would've cost me over $20 at Amazon.com was available for $17.40 elsewhere. And a possible $100 savings on an 40Gb iPod was enough to convince me that comparison shopping is absolutely essential if you want a good deal.

I'll try to put together some reviews, and maybe talk about some of the more specialized shopping services some time soon.

Categories: shopping