Reviews of Four Consumer Search Engines Offering Product Comparisons And Internet Store Ratings
© Paula Dragutsky
If you decide to shop on the Internet, it's no longer necessary to use guesswork and prayer when choosing an online store. BizRate and eSmarts offer ratings and reviews of Internet retail outlets.
CompareNet - HELPS YOU FIND A PRODUCT THAT MEETS YOUR NEEDS
CompareNet supplies a wealth of information about many kinds of goods and a few services. Its coverage of electronic products is especially strong.
Your first step in finding information is to select one of the products specified within a broad category of merchandise. You can choose to search by price-range and product features, brands, or for a particular model number.
Results: Each result includes the brand name and number of the product, price and a brief description. A more detailed description is available that displays the product's features in an easy-to-understand list.
Product Comparisons: You can single out any products from your search results for side by side comparisons.
CompareNet provides valuable Buying Tips about the products it covers. They explain the key features of a product and discuss how to select a model based on your individual needs. There's also a clearly-written Glossary of terms related to the product.
Newsgroups: Another nice touch - CompareNet (in partnership with DejaNews) provides you with relevant messages from newsgroups. You can get a more realistic idea of a product's strengths and limitations by reading what people are saying about it.
Product ReviewNet - THE PLACE FOR PRODUCT REVIEWS
Product ReviewNet provides access to either abstracts or the full-text of reviews written about products in many categories. Unfortunately, it doesn't live up to its potential. Many of the reviews are dated (over a year old) and the abstracts of reviews are sometimes short, confusing and uninformative.
Still, Product ReviewNet is worth a try. The most useful results are the reviews with links to full-text articles available on the web. You can search using keywords or by category of product.
The Index of Buying Guides is a worthwhile feature. It's basically a list of links to articles on the web offering advice about buying a particular product. These articles, which come from many different sources, are generally helpful and instructive.
