Shopping for Shopping Bots
Part 4

GreaterGood    

Just in time for the holidays, GreaterGood provides a shopping bot we can feel good about. In addition to providing a bot that scours about 100 retailers, GreaterGood supports charitable causes: at least five percent of what you spend is donated to the charity of your choice.

Before you enter your item in keyword search, you can also designate a charity to receive your five percent.   Charities range from the Nature Conservancy to Big Brothers of America.

GreaterGood's search technology works fast, but the results weren't impressive. The bot created a list built from all possible categories, which meant it included an offer from eToys for a Barbie "Beach Gear" plastic camcorder for $1.99 (comes complete with miniature boombox and pink canteen), as well as Amazon.com books about camcorders.

When we narrowed our search, only three retailers were included: Hammacher Schlemmer, JC Penny and Amazon.com. Selection was limited, and the popular Panasonic PVDV910 was nowhere to be seen.

In general GreaterGood seems to still be in development phase.  There was, for instance, no way to reorder the list by price or model, and no e-mail price notification system. But if it could add to its list of retailers and buff up its user interface, GreaterGood could be a welcome addition to the crowded field of shopping bots.