Johannes Beus
Microsoft is now also part of the pricecomparision-market. You can get a feel for this at the
MSN Shopping Beta. Under the hood, this is a mix between the
PriceGrabber software as well as proprietary MSN developments. Chris Jolley, Group Programming Manager for MSN Shopping had this to say on
comparisonengines.com:
“Today is the day Microsoft has entered the comparison shopping space. We’ve put a ton of investment into building a better shopping comparison tool. [The site] is our recognition that this is how consumers want to shop. Microsoft has always been good at building great technology. A great selection without a good way to find a product is bad. A great tool with no selection doesn’t help either. We’ve coupled technology with a broad selection of products and merchants. This is a case where 1 + 1 = 3.’
“Right now we are using Pricegrabber, but we have also increased the number of merchants we’re working with directly. The long term the strategy is to explore and investigate ways to bring in relevant offers to consumers. We are launching with Pricegrabber because of the number of merchants they have and the ratings they have. Our relationship gives us a jumpstart in terms of ratings and reviews so we aren’t starting from scratch. We are also taking feeds directly from our own merchants.”