Bot News
Clickthebutton

By Brian Proffitt

Well, you can't get much simpler than this bot. But in this case, simple does not need to mean deficient. In this case, simple is the best part of this shopping bot.

Clickthebutton is a downloadable application that sits unobtrusively on your Windows or Macintosh desktop and waits for you to find a product while shopping online as you normally would. If you find a product in one of Clickthebutton's partner sites, then a small window will appear in the lower part of your screen and invite you to compare prices for that same product right then and there.

By clicking the mystical button, you activate a query that first goes to the PerpetualData product database. PerpetualData is a division of Clickthebutton.com, Inc., and has been amassing a huge product database that lists millions of products sold by hundreds of online merchants.

Perpetual Data's product database is built using complex workflow tools and extensive human effort. It matches up each product in a given online store to the product pages in other online stores where the same product is available for sale. When there is 100% certainty that two products are identical, they are automatically placed in the database by technology. In all other cases, each product is reviewed individually by a human operator who "exactly matches" the product to the database.

By accessing this centralized database first, the Clickthebutton application gains a lot of speed in conducting product comparison searches. Once the product is located on an online price comparison site (my queries mostly were referred to CNET Shopper), the site lists its standard price comparison listing.

There are some drawbacks to the centralized database approach, though. If the product is not listed in the PerpetualData database yet, then the comparison activity will be brought to a halt--even if you know the product is listed on some of the popular price comparison sites.

Clickthebutton is not limited to any one comparison site, which could be a good or a bad thing. If you happen to dislike, oh, say, mySimon's information presentation for some reason, you will have to contend with that problem should Clickthebutton opt to shunt your search to that site. On the other hand, diversity is always good, especially when hunting for a bargain.

What I really liked about this bot was the way it just stayed out of the way until I needed it, unlike some other bots that hog screen real estate while you shop online. You can even change the level of response from a pop-up window to a simple flashing icon when a product page is loaded, if you want.

I did find it tricky to get back to my original product page once I was done looking at the different prices; Clickthebutton states you have to click the Back button on your browser twice to accomplish this. One other tip: if you are as security minded as I, go into the preferences and turn off the Permit Background Updates feature so no updates get loaded onto your machine without your knowledge.

I found Clickthebutton to be a neat little bot without going overboard on the features, which is good for the minimalists out there.