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James Joyner | Tuesday, November 4, 2003

CNET reports:

Search site Ask Jeeves introduced on Tuesday new tools to help visitors find products online, part of an industrywide revival in shopping and product-comparison search.

The Emeryville, Calif.-based company said it extended its “Smart Search” technology, introduced earlier this year for Web navigation, to the area of products, so that visitors can easily compare product features, prices and brands, as well as read reviews and find stores that sell desired items. Smart Search technology is designed to give Web surfers more information within results pages to help cut down the time it takes to find answers.

Ask Jeeves joins several Internet companies that are emphasizing product search at a time when consumer demand is growing. As many as 40 percent of surfers look for information on products or services while using a general search engine, according to industry estimates.

Consequently, Yahoo recently updated its product search, adding feature comparisons and customization tools for shopping. It even altered its home page this weekend to showcase product search, among other things. Google has also updated its specialty shopping service, Froogle, in recent months.

Cool. This is a great concept, although one that hasn’t worked all that well in the past.

About the Author: James Joyner is the publisher of Outside the Beltway and the managing editor of the Atlantic Council. He's a former Army officer, Desert Storm vet, and college professor with a PhD in political science from The University of Alabama. He lives just outside the Beltway in Alexandria, Virginia with his wife and infant daughter.

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