{"id":1212,"date":"2013-05-06T11:00:56","date_gmt":"2013-05-06T18:00:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bensbargains.net\/thecheckout\/?p=1212"},"modified":"2014-01-17T11:25:13","modified_gmt":"2014-01-17T19:25:13","slug":"battle-of-the-shopping-search-engines","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bensbargains.com\/thecheckout\/features\/battle-of-the-shopping-search-engines\/","title":{"rendered":"Revealed!! Battle of the Shopping Search Engines"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;\" class=\"sharethis-inline-share-buttons\" ><\/div><p>If you&#8217;re a regular online shopper, you may have noticed Microsoft&#8217;s commercial promoting the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.bing.com\/\">Bing<\/a> shopping search engine over <a href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/prdhp?hl=en&amp;tab=wf\">Google Shopping<\/a>. In it, a couple discuss how &#8220;Google sells its shopping results, so while they look like honest search results, they&#8217;re really paid ads&#8221; and &#8220;you&#8217;re not even sure what stores they&#8217;ve left out.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>While it&#8217;s true that Google Shopping (formerly Google Product Search) transitioned from a free model to a paid model in 2012, that move only puts it in the majority of price comparison sites.<\/p>\n<div class=\"video-shortcode\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" width=\"620\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/-WIluNt0mvA\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p>So does Bing really provide a better shopping search experience? I&#8217;m going to take a look at five popular shopping search engines, including Google and Bing, and see how they stack up. Three of the sites are &#8220;paid,&#8221; meaning they only accept paid (sponsored) listings, and two of the sites are &#8220;free,&#8221; meaning they accept a mix of paid and free submissions.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/bensbargains.net\/thecheckout\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/shopping-search-engine-sites.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-2818\" alt=\"shopping-search-engine-sites\" src=\"https:\/\/bensbargains.net\/thecheckout\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/shopping-search-engine-sites.jpg\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"918\" height=\"247\" srcset=\"https:\/\/bensbargains.com\/thecheckout\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/shopping-search-engine-sites.jpg 918w, https:\/\/bensbargains.com\/thecheckout\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/shopping-search-engine-sites-300x80.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 918px) 100vw, 918px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><!--nextpage--><\/p>\n<h3>Google Shopping (paid model)<\/h3>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/bensbargains.net\/thecheckout\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/Google-shopping.png\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright  wp-image-2820\" style=\"margin-left: 20px; margin-right: 20px;\" alt=\"Google-shopping\" src=\"https:\/\/bensbargains.net\/thecheckout\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/Google-shopping-300x246.png\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"300\" height=\"246\" srcset=\"https:\/\/bensbargains.com\/thecheckout\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/Google-shopping-300x246.png 300w, https:\/\/bensbargains.com\/thecheckout\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/Google-shopping-1024x841.png 1024w, https:\/\/bensbargains.com\/thecheckout\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/Google-shopping.png 1303w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><div class=\"one_third\"><div class=\"green-box\"><div class=\"green-box-content\"><strong>Coverage: \u00a06\/10<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong>Accuracy: \u00a07\/10<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong>Ease of Use: \u00a08\/10<\/strong><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"dropcap\">A<\/span> major debit against <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/prdhp?hl=en&amp;tab=wf\">Google Shopping<\/a><\/strong> since its transition to a paid model is the notable absence of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/exec\/obidos\/redirect?tag=bensbargaicenter&amp;creative=331681&amp;camp=15345&amp;link_code=ur1&amp;path=subst\/home\/home.html\">Amazon.com<\/a> in search results. Amazon will not pay into Google Shopping listings, so it does not appear in the results. For a lot of online shoppers, Amazon is the touchstone for low prices, which means the user experience on Google Shopping is incomplete at best.<\/p>\n<p>A recent search for the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/shopping\/product\/14924607664754960441?hl=en&amp;q=Cuisinart%20FP-12%20Elite%20Food%20Processor&amp;oq=Cuisinart%20FP-12%20Elite%20Food%20Processor&amp;gs_l=products-cc.12...697839.697839.0.698155.1.1.0.0.0.0.142.142.0j1.1.0...0.0...1ac.2.KsaVOsmGpB4&amp;sa=X&amp;ei=GgWHUZa5A4m9igLmzIGwDg&amp;ved=0CHUQ8wIwAQ&amp;prds=scoring:tp\">&#8220;Cuisinart FP-12 Elite Food Processor&#8221;<\/a> yielded dozens of sponsored results from a mix of well-known online stores, various eBay sellers and some really obscure sites. The majority of the name sites carried this product for $199. The problem is, if you made a quick jump over to Amazon, you would&#8217;ve found <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Cuisinart-FP-12-Collection-12-Cup-Processor\/dp\/B002I5BOV4\/bensbargaicenter\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">this same Cuisinart food processor<\/a> for $15 less! Oops.<\/p>\n<p>Aside from the Amazon debacle, Google Shopping generally has the most comprehensive results, but it also means you end up seeing listings from a lot of stores you&#8217;ve never heard from and wouldn&#8217;t want to give your credit card number to. So, if absolute lowest price trumps common sense for you, there will be a lot of wading through &#8220;too good to be true&#8221; listings from obscure merchants with unreliable Google seller ratings. If you&#8217;re willing to buy a $1500 Samsung HDTV from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.neobits.com\/\">Neobits<\/a> instead of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.crutchfield.com\/\">Crutchfield<\/a> or <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bestbuy.com\/\">Best Buy<\/a>, then good luck to you.<\/p>\n<p><!--nextpage--><\/p>\n<h3>Bing (free model)<\/h3>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/bensbargains.net\/thecheckout\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/Bing-results.png\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-2822\" style=\"margin-left: 20px; margin-right: 20px;\" alt=\"Bing-results\" src=\"https:\/\/bensbargains.net\/thecheckout\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/Bing-results-300x289.png\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"300\" height=\"289\" srcset=\"https:\/\/bensbargains.com\/thecheckout\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/Bing-results-300x289.png 300w, https:\/\/bensbargains.com\/thecheckout\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/Bing-results-1024x989.png 1024w, https:\/\/bensbargains.com\/thecheckout\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/Bing-results.png 1102w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><div class=\"one_third\"><div class=\"green-box\"><div class=\"green-box-content\"><strong>Coverage: \u00a04\/10<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong> Accuracy: \u00a05\/10<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong> Ease of Use: \u00a04\/10<\/strong><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"dropcap\">W<\/span>hile <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bing.com\/\">Bing<\/a><\/strong> may advertise a &#8220;purer&#8221; price comparison experience, most users will be left scratching their heads. Unlike Google Shopping, Bing shopping does not have a dedicated portal, per se. You simply enter your keyword search at Bing.com and get shopping results along with other web results. You then click to the bing.com\/shopping results and then click &#8220;Find best price&#8221; to get a full listing of results.<\/p>\n<p>While Microsoft makes the disclaimer, &#8220;Payment is NOT a factor used to rank search results in Bing,&#8221; the first listing you will see is a sponsored offer at the top with a much larger product image than the regular listings. The differentiation is otherwise pretty subtle.<\/p>\n<p>Amazon does appear in Bing results, but it may not be the Amazon you&#8217;re looking for. In a recent search for the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bing.com\/shopping\/cuisinart-elite-collection-fp-12-food-processor-1000-w-white\/p\/5F44A56F0854E6B70100?q=Cuisinart+FP-12+Elite+Food+Processor%22&amp;lpf=0&amp;lpq=Cuisinart%2bFP%2b12%2bElite%2bFood%2bProcessor&amp;FORM=CMSMEE\">&#8220;Cuisinart FP-12 Elite Food Processor,<\/a>&#8221; an Amazon Marketplace listing appeared for $188, even though Amazon.com carries it for $184. Oops.<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s nice not to get as many results from stores you would never shop at, but at the same time, you get the feeling that you&#8217;re not seeing as many of the reputable stores, either. Also, the prices do not appear as regularly updated as they are on Google.<\/p>\n<p>You do get some more bells and whistles on Bing, notably a Price History chart, but overall the experience feels like a work in progress.<\/p>\n<p><!--nextpage--><\/p>\n<h3>PriceGrabber (paid model)<\/h3>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/bensbargains.net\/thecheckout\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/PriceGrabber-results.png\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-2826\" style=\"margin-left: 20px; margin-right: 20px;\" alt=\"PriceGrabber-results\" src=\"https:\/\/bensbargains.net\/thecheckout\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/PriceGrabber-results-300x256.png\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"300\" height=\"256\" srcset=\"https:\/\/bensbargains.com\/thecheckout\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/PriceGrabber-results-300x256.png 300w, https:\/\/bensbargains.com\/thecheckout\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/PriceGrabber-results-1024x875.png 1024w, https:\/\/bensbargains.com\/thecheckout\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/PriceGrabber-results.png 1341w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><div class=\"one_third\"><div class=\"green-box\"><div class=\"green-box-content\"><strong>Coverage: \u00a06\/10<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong> Accuracy: \u00a06\/10<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong> Ease of Use: \u00a07\/10<\/strong><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.pricegrabber.com\/\"><span class=\"dropcap\">P<\/span><strong>riceGrabber<\/strong><\/a> has been in the game for many years, and it offers many features in addition to its price comparison engine. PriceGrabber is not quite as intuitive as Google Shopping, but it&#8217;s more colorful and arguably more organized in its listings.<\/p>\n<p>In my search for the &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/appliances.pricegrabber.com\/food-processors\/Cuisinart-FP-12-Elite-Collection-Cup-White\/m738774192.html\/search=Cuisinart+FP-12+Elite+Food+Processor\/no_sps=1\">Cuisinart FP-12 Elite Food Processor<\/a>,&#8221; the $184 best price from Amazon.com actually did appear, although only in the black model, not the white which was also $184. The PriceGrabber results for the white model omitted the Amazon.com listing entirely. Macy&#8217;s $199 sale price was also missing from the results, although this well-known retailer of housewares appeared in Bing&#8217;s free listings.<\/p>\n<p>Still, compared to Bing, the PriceGrabber coverage felt more complete, and because there were mainly high-profile stores represented, it was a less cluttered and more straightforward experience than Google Shopping. You do get the feeling you&#8217;re possibly missing some hidden great price out there that&#8217;s not being shown in the results, but if you&#8217;re only going to be shopping from the best-known stores anyway, PriceGrabber is a solid choice.<\/p>\n<p><!--nextpage--><\/p>\n<h3>Nextag (paid model)<\/h3>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/bensbargains.net\/thecheckout\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/Nextag-results.png\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-2832\" style=\"margin-left: 20px; margin-right: 20px;\" alt=\"Nextag-results\" src=\"https:\/\/bensbargains.net\/thecheckout\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/Nextag-results-300x240.png\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"300\" height=\"240\" srcset=\"https:\/\/bensbargains.com\/thecheckout\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/Nextag-results-300x240.png 300w, https:\/\/bensbargains.com\/thecheckout\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/Nextag-results-1024x820.png 1024w, https:\/\/bensbargains.com\/thecheckout\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/Nextag-results.png 1265w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><div class=\"one_third\"><div class=\"green-box\"><div class=\"green-box-content\"><b>Coverage: \u00a06\/10<\/b><br \/>\n<b>Accuracy: \u00a07\/10<\/b><br \/>\n<b>Ease of Use: \u00a07\/10<\/b><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nextag.com\/\"><span class=\"dropcap\">N<\/span><strong>extag<\/strong><\/a> is another venerable price comparison site that underwent a makeover in recent years to improve its usability. The site is pretty straightforward to use and, like PriceGrabber, offers a narrower but more refined selection of results than you would find on Google Shopping. It also has an easy-to-use feature called the <a href=\"https:\/\/nextagnews.nextag.com\/tag\/nextag-radar\/\">Nextag Radar<\/a>, which is basically an email alert for when a product drops to your target price.<\/p>\n<p>What it lacks in comprehensive seller listings, Nextag makes up for in straightforwardness and accuracy. Unlike PriceGrabber, the $184 Amazon.com price for the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nextag.com\/Cuisinart-Elite-Collection-12-678410643\/prices-html\">&#8220;Cuisinart FP-12 Elite Food Processor&#8221;<\/a> appeared in the results for both the black and white models. You&#8217;re not going to see every retailer&#8217;s price, but you&#8217;ll get the most reputable listings. Also, the layout of price comparison results is easy to follow, without requiring an unnecessary number of clicks.<\/p>\n<p><!--nextpage--><\/p>\n<h3>TheFind (free model)<\/h3>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/bensbargains.net\/thecheckout\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/TheFind-results.png\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright  wp-image-2835\" style=\"margin-left: 20px; margin-right: 20px;\" alt=\"TheFind-results\" src=\"https:\/\/bensbargains.net\/thecheckout\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/TheFind-results-300x247.png\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"300\" height=\"247\" srcset=\"https:\/\/bensbargains.com\/thecheckout\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/TheFind-results-300x247.png 300w, https:\/\/bensbargains.com\/thecheckout\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/TheFind-results-1024x844.png 1024w, https:\/\/bensbargains.com\/thecheckout\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/TheFind-results.png 1401w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><div class=\"one_third\"><div class=\"green-box\"><div class=\"green-box-content\"><b>Coverage: \u00a07\/10<\/b><br \/>\n<b>Accuracy: \u00a04\/10<\/b><br \/>\n<b>Ease of Use: \u00a04\/10<\/b><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"dropcap\">W<\/span>hile <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thefind.com\/\">TheFind<\/a><\/strong> does not label itself as a price comparison site, per se, that&#8217;s still the basic functionality of the site. You&#8217;ll get a ton of search results in a grid display rather than the traditional list view, so it requires a lot more browsing to find what you&#8217;re looking for.<\/p>\n<p>My search for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thefind.com\/search?query=Cuisinart+FP-12+Elite+Food+Processor\">&#8220;Cuisinart FP-12 Elite Food Processor&#8221;<\/a> returned a bevy of results from a variety of stores, including Amazon, Macy&#8217;s and Kohl&#8217;s (the latter which hadn&#8217;t been represented much in other search engines). However, the prices were not the most up-to-date and did not give an accurate real-time comparison.<\/p>\n<p>However, its extensive coverage of relevant retailers coupled with less emphasis on fly-by-night outfits was a welcome change, particularly with electronics and tech searches. Its slogan &#8220;Every Product, Every Store,&#8221; is hyperbole, of course, but fitting. TheFind may appeal to certain power users tired of using the same old sites.<\/p>\n<p><!--nextpage--><\/p>\n<h3>Verdict<\/h3>\n<p>The winner is&#8230;<strong>Google Shopping<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>Despite the aggressive Microsoft ad campaign and glaring lack of Amazon results, Google Shopping is still the best overall price comparison experience on the web. It appeals to both casual and power users and is very flexible and easy-to-use.\u00a0 With any price comparison research, it&#8217;s best to consult multiple sources, including the stores directly like Amazon and eBay and price tracker services like <a href=\"https:\/\/camelcamelcamel.com\/\">CamelCamelCamel<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Of course, you&#8217;ll also want to visit <a href=\"https:\/\/bensbargains.net\/\"><strong>Ben&#8217;s Bargains<\/strong><\/a> to find the lowest prices on the web, day in and day out, and to sign up for <a href=\"https:\/\/bensbargains.net\/alert-manager\/\">Deal Alerts<\/a>. Good luck on your searches and remember to never pay retail!<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/bensbargains.net\/thecheckout\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/boromir-meme.png\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-2838\" alt=\"boromir-meme\" src=\"https:\/\/bensbargains.net\/thecheckout\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/boromir-meme.png\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"547\" height=\"325\" srcset=\"https:\/\/bensbargains.com\/thecheckout\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/boromir-meme.png 547w, https:\/\/bensbargains.com\/thecheckout\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/boromir-meme-300x178.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 547px) 100vw, 547px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>If you&#8217;re a regular online shopper, you may have noticed Microsoft&#8217;s commercial promoting the\u00a0Bing shopping search engine over Google Shopping. In it, a couple discuss how &#8220;Google sells its shopping results, so while they look like honest search results, they&#8217;re really paid ads&#8221; and &#8220;you&#8217;re not even sure what stores they&#8217;ve left out.&#8221; While it&#8217;s [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":2844,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[51,298,299,208,300],"class_list":["post-1212","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-features","tag-bens-bargains","tag-google-shopping","tag-price-comparison-sites","tag-revealed","tag-shopping-search-engines"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bensbargains.com\/thecheckout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1212","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bensbargains.com\/thecheckout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bensbargains.com\/thecheckout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bensbargains.com\/thecheckout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bensbargains.com\/thecheckout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1212"}],"version-history":[{"count":29,"href":"https:\/\/bensbargains.com\/thecheckout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1212\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12560,"href":"https:\/\/bensbargains.com\/thecheckout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1212\/revisions\/12560"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bensbargains.com\/thecheckout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2844"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bensbargains.com\/thecheckout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1212"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bensbargains.com\/thecheckout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1212"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bensbargains.com\/thecheckout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1212"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}