Comments on: New search engine launched, meet CouponLooker

By: Rahul Pathak

Rahul Pathak — Mon, 09 Apr 2007 05:41:24 +0000

Hi All,

Yan, Rob – great question. Google custom search and Rollyo are cool services and do allow you to restrict your search space to specific sites.

At couponlooker, what we’re trying to do is find, rank and dedupe coupons and display information like expiry date & coupon code to save users time and generate traffic to coupon sites.

Because we’re focused on finding coupons rather than websites about coupons, we are confident we can deliver more value than site-restricted custom search.

At the end of the day though, users will do what they always do – vote with their feet.

Rahul

By: Yan

Yan — Mon, 09 Apr 2007 05:16:18 +0000

Using Google Co-op or Rollyo.com is what I immediately thought about when I found CouponLooker. The thing is that you probably need to do some search results post processing to make the tool really useful. Maybe Rahul will comment, why CouponLooker is better than a solution built on top of these services?

By: Rob

Rob — Fri, 06 Apr 2007 19:59:05 +0000

Interesting idea … I bumped into another site based on the exact same concept … search engine to find deals and coupons …

http://couponsearch.googlepages.com/

By: XynamaX

XynamaX — Fri, 06 Apr 2007 16:44:36 +0000

Bizrate also does the same..

By: Yan

Yan — Fri, 06 Apr 2007 15:38:53 +0000

PriceGrabber provides facility for merchants to build co-branded price comparison. Take a look at these for example:

http://fatwallet.pricegrabber.com/
http://slickdeals.pricegrabber.com/

They look exactly like the main sites (FatWallet and SlickDeals) but they are hosted off of the PriceGrabber domain.

This would be the easiest way for you to build your own price comparison. If you are looking at more customization then I would check what API Shopping.com provides.

By: Vlatko

Vlatko — Fri, 06 Apr 2007 11:49:00 +0000

First of all I must say that I like your posts. They are highly relevant and they show that you spent a lot of time for research.

The reason for this comment is that I have a question, which is not connected with the title of this post since you deactivated comments for your earlier posts (on the issues about price comparison engines).

So let’s go straight to the point. I want to know if there is any possibility to incorporate price comparison table, chart or whatever on my site from one of the price comparison engines (of course with their permission, affiliate or not).

I was doing a research myself but I thought that if I ask you it would be better.

By: Rahul Pathak

Rahul Pathak — Fri, 06 Apr 2007 04:54:59 +0000

Yan,

Thanks for checking couponlooker out and for the kind words and feedback in your review.

Our goal is to be clear and transparent about the search results that appear when users look for coupons and to monetize via contextual placements similar to Google and Yahoo. Order within search results is based on relevance and user value and nothing else. I don’t think you can claim to have a search engine without delivering on that fundamental promise.

Regarding the widget link clicks going to couponlooker rather than to coupon sites, we do believe that the more comprehensive results deliver value on couponlooker. If we hear enough from users that it’s a pain in the ass, we’ll change it.

In the long run, the only way to win is to deliver value to users. That’s not always an easy road, but it’s always worth walking.

Thanks again for the feedback and for a great blog in general.

Cheers,

Rahul

PS: If any of you have suggestions about how we can make couponlooker or judysbook better, please let us know. I’d love to hear from you.