In recent years shopping has been making a gradual transition to the web, where people now expect to find more and more services available to them. Ecommerce was once a small market most suited to mass produced products like CDs and DVD which were easy to delivery. However, now it seems you can get anything online; ranging from personalised clothing to custom car parts. With this transition there are of course companies who see the potential to get into this market, but not as a seller, as a service provider.
Years ago search engines arrived to help us find what we wanted when content was blossoming on the web. Now some of the major search engine providers have turned their attention to the shopping industry, with price comparison services for any range of products. This article aims to look at how the holy trinity that is Google Shopping, Bing Ciao and Yahoo Kelkoo, compare with each other in the marketplace of price comparison shopping.
In order to make this comparison we had to conduct an in depth review of the services based on a variety of factors:
- Relevance (How Relevant the returned results are to the intent of the search.)
- Best Price (The cheapest price found for the item in question.)
- Features (What extras the service offers, such as filtering and search options.)
- Ease of Use (How quickly you can get used to both the services functionality and layout.)
The review will also take into account other factors about the services that deserve a mention along the way.
To create an in depth review of each site we will test for a selection of 6 very different products in order to get a precise overview of how well each site performs its searches. The items vary greatly in availability and specificity so that the review can get as broad an insight into each service as possible. Hopefully by the end we’ll have a clear winner.
Relevance
The scale for scoring this was out of 10. 10 being perfect results for the search, and 1 being “What the? That's not what I said!”
Click to Enlarge
Throughout the relevance test it became apparent on several occasions that Ciao lost site of the goal and just spouted out whatever came close to the right answer. As a result it lagged way behind the other two in providing what you were after, returning a couple of nearly useless results. Kelkoo and Google stood up pretty well overall with a good selection of results on most occasions. However, Kelkoo just edges it with slightly better results and filtering that surpasses Google by a distance.
Best Price
This was based on seeing which service could provide the right product at the cheapest price. Joint cheapest results both get points.
Click to Enlarge
It’s a shopping comparison site, so the one thing that it has to provide is access to the cheapest options available. If it falls down here then it’s not doing its job right. Luckily, all three sites were capable of turning out the cheapest option. However there has to be a winner and the best performer statistically was Google with the unique cheapest option twice out of six attempts and joint cheapest twice more. This is mostly thanks to Google having more expansive results.
Features & Ease of Use
Google’s features are extremely limited. Whether this comes as part of their minimalist approach or not, it isn't helpful. There are very few options to filter the output of your results, and for the site which generally has the most returns, this is irritating. Furthermore the information on the results is very limited and the only plus point of the results are that they have a useful sellers rating feature. It does have images, although I wouldn’t be surprised if these were omitted.
Features: 4/10 Ease of Use: 8/10
Bing offered a far more comprehensive service than Google. However, this was never a difficult task as Google had a skeletal selection of features on offer. Bing offered reviews, product info and P&P costs as well as having filtering available by category. However, sorting can be a slightly confusing and arduous affair that leaves you feeling that a little more effort in this area would have gone a long way.
Features: 6/10 Ease of Use: 4/10
What can be said about Kelkoo’s features? Well certainly a lot more than can be said for the other two. With by far the best filtering and sorting options as well as the most attractive and functional layout Kelkoo finds Google and Bing sorely lacking. With all the same results features that Bing offers and more detailed search options and filters, searching with Kelkoo is infinitely less confusing than the others. It also offers editors picks and seasonal sale options just to sweeten the deal.
Features: 9/10 Ease of Use: 9/10
And the Winner is…
Yep, Yahoo Kelkoo clinches it; mostly through usability and features. In fact to be honest, the only area where Yahoo didn’t come out trumps was in providing the best price and even here it wasn’t far behind.
Of course depending how you look at it you might see Google as the top performer as it had the cheapest results most often and isn’t that the key to a good comparison site? However, this is something you want to regularly come back to and Kelkoo certainly offers more in terms of service.
As a side note it’s worth mentioning that while each of the respective search engines own these services only Google actually developed their system themselves. Kelkoo and Ciao! where both pre-existing setups before Bing and Yahoo got their hands on them. Furthermore Google is the only one that does not charge for inclusion which shows why it has more comprehensive results.
So while Kelkoo gets the nod as best service, Google gets the awards for being the most fair as well as being the only one big enough to get their finger out and do it themselves. Given a bit more time to develop the functionality and features Google could easily surpass Kelkoo. For Bing Ciao! on the other hand, if they can’t even pull in relevant results then they might as well give up the ghost.
- Why Invest In Content Marketing? - March 12, 2013
- Why Creative Copywriting Can Make or Break Your Brand - March 12, 2013
- What is Your Sites Link Profile Saying about You? - February 19, 2013
- Can a Small On-line Business Really Compete with the Big Boys? - February 19, 2013
- Ramsay’s Web Wire – Issue #40: Sleet, Snow and SEO - December 3, 2010
- Ramsay’s Web Wire – Issue #39: Out of the Google Frying Pan… - November 26, 2010
- Ramsay’s Web Wire – Issue #38: The Google, the Bad and the Ugly - November 19, 2010
- Ramsay’s Web Wire – Issue #37: Google Jams A Few Rockets In Your Pocket - November 5, 2010
- Ramsay’s Web Wire – Issue #36: Google Gets All Up in Your Business - October 29, 2010
- Ramsay’s Web Wire – Issue #35: Google’s Groovy Giftset - October 22, 2010
You may also be interested in:
- What does Bing Shopping have to Offer during the Seasonal Rush? During the busy holiday season, businesses look to make their biggest profits and Bing Shopping looks to take advantage of...
- Google, Bing and Yahoo Online Maps – Reviewed We review online map offerings from Google, Yahoo and Bing to see which is the best! ...
- New Anti-Malware Search Engine Security Firefox Add-On to Protect Your Search Results Find out why search engines are becoming a haven for malware and what you and Firefox can do about it....
- Google Search has a New Look Google has a subtle new look and beneath the surface, well off to the side, it has a new side...
- Google Up in December Search Rankings as Yahoo and Bing Slip The Nielsen Company have released their U.S. search engine ranking results for December revealing how the underdogs Bing and Yahoo...
Cozy Digital is an