News

**MSE Dan** · 24-02-2009, 2:18 PM

Hi folks,

You may remember back in December we launched a Beta version of a new, free site tool, the Megashopbot, which combines loads of online shopping robots into a one-click search.

We got loads of great feedback, and that led to it being rejigged by the techies and designers here. So now we're launching a new and improved version of it.

It's still in 'Beta', but we think this is much closer to a final version. Three major shopbots are still missing, as coding them in this format is currently not possible (we are working on it!): Moneysupermarket, Bookbrain and Shopping.com.

Here is the link – hope you like it, please play with it give us suggestions etc, let us know bugs etc

Mega Shopbot

Cheers

Dan

krishna · 25-02-2009, 8:59 AM

Great tool. I have always used bookprice24.co.uk for books. It still seems to find things megashopbot misses. e.g. just done a comparison on the two and found books cheaper on Amazon marketplace that are not listed on megashopbot.

counsellor7 · 25-02-2009, 9:12 AM

I'd hoped your Megashopbot would do for shopbots what metasearch tool 'ixquick' does for web searches - i.e. powerfully combine the results of several individual search tools into a single list in oder of usefulness (significance of match). I'd rather expected something more analagous to GoCompare combining individual insurance quotes into one big set in increasing cost order.

Instead, I found your tool merely presented me with several separate shopbots accessible under separate tabs all displaying in one window. Presumably you are just saving me entering the item I'm looking for into sparate shopbots with cut and paste (which is what I normally do).

This is a bit more convenient (thank you), but 'Mega' suggested much more power than I found. Am I missing something? Have I overlooked more value?

Best wishes to MSE, and Happy Birthday!

**MSE Martin** · 25-02-2009, 10:02 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by counsellor7

I'd hoped your Megashopbot would do for shopbots what metasearch tool 'ixquick' does for web searches - i.e. powerfully combine the results of several individual search tools into a single list in oder of usefulness (significance of match). I'd rather expected something more analagous to GoCompare combining individual insurance quotes into one big set in increasing cost order.

Instead, I found your tool merely presented me with several separate shopbots accessible under separate tabs all displaying in one window. Presumably you are just saving me entering the item I'm looking for into sparate shopbots with cut and paste (which is what I normally do).

This is a bit more convenient (thank you), but 'Mega' suggested much more power than I found. Am I missing something? Have I overlooked more value?

Best wishes to MSE, and Happy Birthday!

Hiya

No you've not missed anything. The aim here was two fold,

1. To provide a superquick & convenient way of searching a number of shopbots in one go. As there is a lack of range in many shopbots
2. To autoselect the top shop bots for each subject (based on our research) to help you get the prices more quickly,

For MSE its quite important the results aren't seen as being 'ours' as many shopbots results can have a bias towards their commercial situation hence the reason for making it very clear its their results not ours.

The idea you request is something we simply haven't found a way to do in any meaningful sense (or have the development time for). The MSB is all about speed and breafth - a wide search at speed, saving time.

In the first MSB it spawned new windows for each Shopbot, we've worked hard to keep it all on the page to make it work.

Martin

SewerSide · 25-02-2009, 4:17 PM

I just get Whoops! Sorry, you've landed on a page that doesn't exist!

Searching for littlebigplanet on PS3 under Games, all shopbots selected. Im using Firefox 3

Bascule · 25-02-2009, 4:46 PM

This is a great idea. Can I suggest adding Bookkoob to the book shopbots? I usually find bookkoob better than any of the others.

acaj13 · 25-02-2009, 5:41 PM

I just get Whoops! Sorry, you've landed on a page that doesn't exist!

I searched for several Wii games, a ds game and a freezer, all came back with this result when I pressed the compare button

paulofalus · 25-02-2009, 8:46 PM

I'm getting the same error too whatever type of search I try.

Whoops! Sorry, you've landed on a page that doesn't exist!

Have used the tool successfully before today and I think it's a fantastic idea.

**MSE Dan** · 26-02-2009, 11:15 AM

Sorry folks, there was a glitch last night but our wonderful techie got online and fixed it up

spacedoubt · 01-03-2009, 8:44 AM

One engine I have noticed is missing is gamestracker.com. I buy a lot of video games and this site is invaluable in locating the best prices and also features retailer reviews.

PS been a moneysaving addict for years and this is the first time I have posted anything on any forum anywhere!

jackann100 · 16-03-2009, 9:36 AM

Hi, using the site to find some new perfume, great to be able to compare so many at once.

The content of the tab Smellies Direct is that from Kelkoo
The content of the tab Kelkoo is from Direct Cosmetics

etc. to the end of the list

I'm using Mozilla 3.0.7

good luck with this idea

theowl · 17-03-2009, 4:00 PM

Twenga - Gave me a good price for a set of headphones with a company called IOOSS or something similar and when I checked out on their website I was taken to Amazon and a much higher price! Some sneaky affiliation link.

PrudentPanda · 08-05-2009, 12:51 PM

Hi,

I have recently launched a price comparison site that i hope would work well in your megabot - prudentpanda.co.uk.

I've tried to make the site extremely simple to use so the user will just see the best prices for stuff without having to ignore all the other adverts and money making schemes. Yes, i make money from the affiliated links but that is how i intend the site will make money without having to bombard you with other ads all over the place. I am also looking at following the MSE example by including non affiliated retailers as well to give a truly unbiased view but i need to work on ways to get the data for that (affiliated retailers provide all that data for you). However, from the checks i've made against other price comparison sites i am confident that prudentpanda.co.uk will include all the retailers that they include, if not more. And as the data is updated numerous times dailt you can be confident that the prices shown are bang up to date.

Also, if any voucher codes or discount codes are available to use on a particular product/retailer - this will be included in the price and when you click to view the product you will be given details of the code to use to get that price. The site also specifies delivery charges and stock levels so you can make the very best decision as to where to buy.

The site currently just concentrates on consumer electronics but i will be adding more categories to it in the coming months.

Hopefully you will at least review the site for inclusion! I will also appreciate feedback from anybody as the whole emphasis on the site is to create a great and simple user experience.....so i look forward to hearing from anybody about it!

dmheard · 12-05-2009, 2:32 PM

Shopbot is a great help, but the old version which opened up each set of results in a new window was much easier to view than the new, small box. Scrolling through the results now ends up with the main page intermittently scrolling too and it is just too much of a faff. I'm going back to manual searches where I can view a full screen list of results and happily scroll up and down the results. Perhaps an option as to how to display the results is possible please?

daryn00 · 14-08-2009, 10:50 AM

You might want to add www cex co uk (Computer Exchange) to the console/pc games search engines. loads of console/pc games/hardware on there for occasionally heavily discounted prices.

(sorry for posting a link, I dont work at all for CEX, I'm just a customer of theirs. I'd mail it to someone but I'm not sure who??)