Google has outdone themselves once again. If you read my last post about comparing prices on a printer from 156 stores, you probably wondered how I did that. If you type "compare prices" into your browser, you will come up with several of the old standby internet price comparison sites. Google has come up with a search engine that will not only compare prices from internet sellers, but from local stores and it will tell you which ones are in your area along with a map showing you how to get there. The search engine also compares prices with tax and shipping so that you get a true bottom line price. You can find it at http://www.google.com/products or right from your gmail screen if you click on "more" from the navigation bar at the top of the page, and then click on "shopping."
Let's use the Canon Pixma MP640 printer as our example. If I type that into the search box, I can then sort my search by relevance, price, product rating, and seller rating. I can also enter my zip code to find stores in my area. I am going to search using my zip code. The first item that comes up tells me that the printer is being sold in 9 nearby stores. If I click on the "compare prices" button, now I not only see the prices from the internet sellers, but I can also see what Sears, Walmart and Staples are charging. I can also look up customer reviews, technical specs, how-to videos, similar items and accessories for the printer.
If you can get used to using this search engine, you can stop going through the Sunday newspaper ads to see who has the best price in your area and stop searching all over the internet in order to compare prices. I would imagine that there are a lot of retailers who aren't thrilled about this nifty tool, but for the consumer, it's golden!
