Shopping for Shopping Bots
Part 7

StreetPrices

Despite a user interface that seems geared toward those shopping for computers, StreetPrices missed providing the best price on the Panasonic PVDV910 by one dollar. (The lowest price was $728, found on DealTime.) The front page offers an extensive list of computer categories, and even after drilling down into the camcorders section, the "search computers" keyword search remained an option.

That quibble aside, however, StreetPrices offers loads of information clearly displayed. The search for camcorders resulted in a bar graph that overviewed the price range for all types of camcorders. Digital camcorders, it informed us, range from $329 to $3599, whereas VHS range go from $289 to $1899.

StreetPrices searches 250 online merchants and the list of digital camcorders included 89 offers. You can view the list by price, model and manufacturer. When we chose the Panasonic PVDV910, it showed offers from five retailers, ranging from a low of $729 to the highest price found, $899.

An additional graph that tracked price over time, comparing the movement of both the low and high offer for the Panasonic PVDV910. It showed that the low offer had been $750 six weeks ago, held steady for several weeks, and only recently dropped to $729. The high offer had started out at $800, and had quickly moved to its current $899.

StreetPrices also has an easy-to-use ongoing price alert function. When your search results come up, your alert menu is there too. Just enter the price you're willing to pay, your e-mail address, and click the Alert button. In addition, there's a "write your own review" function that enables you to give consumer feedback.