On the internet, a price comparison service (also known as shopping comparison or price engine) allows individuals to see different lists of prices for specific products. Most price comparison services do not sell products themselves, but source prices from retailers from whom users can buy. In the UK, these services made between £120m and £140m in revenue in 2005 , and is growing at an annual rate of 30% to 50%.

History

The internet boom of the late 1990s made price comparison profitable.

Price comparison services were initially implemented as client-side add-ins to the Netscape and Internet explorer browsers, and required that additional software be downloaded and installed. After these initial efforts, comparison shopping migrated to the server so that the service would be accessible to anyone with a browser.

Services are now offered by websites dedicated to price comparison and by major portals such as Yahoo!.

Shopping

In the late 1990s, as more people gained access to the internet, a range of shopping portals were built that listed retailers for specific product genres. Retailers listed paid the website a fixed fee for appearing. These were little more than an online version of the Yellow Pages. As technology has improved, a newer "breed" of shopping Web portals is being created that are changing both the business model and the features and functionality offered. These sites do not "aggregate" data-feeds provided from the retailers, they search and retrieve the data directly from each retailer site. This allows for a much more comprehensive list of retailers and the ability to update the data in real-time.

Generic portals and search engines launched similar services and companies that stood to benefit from increased internet shopping (especially credit card and delivery firms) launched similar sites. Many of these services have since closed.

From Wikipedia under the GNU Free Documentation License
Thu Oct 15 15:03:26 2009

What the best energy price comparison sites in UK?
Q. Tied of paying high energy bills. Someone suggested comparing switching energy suppliers. Im looking for a website that lists all the price comparison sites.
Asked by Professor1001 - Sun Oct 11 09:46:53 2009 - - 1 Answers - 0 Comments

A. Hope this helps. But most of the time changing energy suppliers wont really help...it can cost you even more.
Answered by unknown - Sun Oct 11 10:33:45 2009

Price comparison of different floorings?
Q. Hi, I am constructing a home in my native place. It is 80kms from Chennai and is in Andhra pradesh. I want to understand the prices of marble and granite floorings. My house is about 1400 sq ft (2 floors included; exlcuding bathrooms). I would also like a comparison of marble and granite for different rooms like hall , kitchen and bedroom
Asked by unknown - Mon Sep 21 10:38:25 2009 - - 2 Answers - 0 Comments

A. I live in the USA, so I can't tell you about prices in India. But granite is a much better product for flooring than marble. Marble is softer and will require more maintenance to keep it looking shiny, especially in high traffic areas. Granite may cost a little more to buy, but overall it will save you money.
Answered by Dr. Strangelove - Mon Sep 21 11:08:16 2009

Do any price comparison sites exist for the Canadian market ?
Q. Do sites such as cnet.com or pricegrabbers.com whom compare prices from a myriad of stores to give you the lowest prices on diverse electronics and such exist in Canada ?
Asked by bleachmaniac - Sun Dec 21 15:23:52 2008 - - 1 Answers - 0 Comments

A. Yes there are plenty of sites, google search what you are looking for and add price comparison, also you can search in canada only if you click on it at the top of the page, good luck
Answered by Lori - Wed Dec 24 15:32:02 2008

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