PriceBlink: Browser Add-On Makes Price Comparisons Easier - schneidereself1954

At a Glance

Expert's Rating

Pros

Silently works in the background
Pops up only when needed

Cons

Kit and caboodle best with products found in multiple stores

Our Verdict

Web browser add-on PriceBlink helps you find coupons and equate prices among various e-retailers.

The Internet makes it easy to compare prices on just about any product, but it fundament be time-consuming to seek from web site to site. Tools like PriceBlink (footloose) can speed up this chore away scouring the Net for prices as you shop and sending you the prices from competing sites as you search. PriceBlink is a browser add-along with versions that shape with Firefox, Google Chrome, Internet Explorer, and Safari.

PriceBlink screenshot — PriceBlink lets you quickly comparison the prices on items such as DVDs.

PriceBlink does a good job of being unnoticeable, yet readily available. Most of the time, every bit you bop from site to site on the Web, you won't know it's there. But when you visit a active e-retailer's website (and if it's John Major retailing site, IT's possible participating), a thin bar pops up along the top of the screen just below the web browser's toolbar. On every page of the active website, the toolbar displays the coupons for that retailer via a drop-downfield leaning. At one time you click a specific ware on the website, PriceBlink will explore for other retailers that sell that product for less, offering another drop-down list where you can see competitors' prices. If totally of the prices it finds are higher, it will pop up with the phrase, "The next lowest price is $xx at [some store]." If information technology doesn't find anything, it leave pop prepared with the idiom, "Sorry, no price comparison results found for this product." A third drop-down box, labeled "Wish," lets you mention a price for the item you'd the likes of to grease one's palms and welcome a notification via netmail when the detail drops to it price. You moldiness make up an account with an e-mail plow and parole to use the Wish feature.

Having the shipping cost likewise as the base price is the just way to know the real price of an detail, so including both is key to making a price comparison tool useful. PriceBlink did let in shipping costs, including whether the price includes free shipping, most of the time. But some e-retailers, mainly Amazon, often added the vague "plus shipping," forcing users to click to Amazon's web site to get hold out how much the total cost is there. In my searches, Amazon came up on the list many times even though IT often was not cheaper once regular merchant marine costs were figured in, amounting to a waste of time. PriceBlink's FAQ states that they try to get shipping costs from retailers, but not complete retailers testament provide that information.

If you're wondering which retailers are affiliated with PriceBlink, attend priceblink.com, where IT lists thousands of sites in script order. The site too lists popular coupons from particular retailers and lets you manage your wish lists and sign up for coupon alerts from individual stores.

Since the monetary value comparison in PriceBlink is stigmatize-focused, it works best for products sold across tenfold stores, such as books and electronics. PriceBlink oftentimes came up glassy for price searches happening more proprietary items, such as apparel surgery furniture. Still, the voucher tool helped to provide a itsy-bitsy metre of usefulness where it couldn't offer price comparisons.

PriceBlink is a simpleton, free add-on that offers a useful service without much spat, and it understands the grandness of doing and so silently, which I apprise.

Note: The Download button takes you to the vendor's site, where you lavatory download the version of the software appropriate to your system and your browser.

–Lisa Cekan