How To Buy a New Playstation 3 for $350
I just saw this web site that helps you get brand name products cheap on Ebay.
It's called AuctionIntelligence, and it's a great idea.
You type in the keywords you are looking for, such as 'Playstation' and it searches Ebay on all the auctions with the misspelt versions of the keywords. If he keyword is wrong (i.e. palystation) then nobody can find the auction, ergo fewer bids and lower prices. I tried it, it works.
It's a very clever idea and a must for cheap bas..rds.
I wonder what other such ideas are there that test the limits of search technologies.
Isn't the entire direction management industry basically a way to take out inefficiencies in Search?
Posted by: Cem Sertoglu | January 30, 2007 at 09:14 AM
Cem,
Interesting. Tell us more.
Posted by: Baris Karadogan | January 30, 2007 at 09:23 AM
AuctionIntelligence is a clever idea. I suppose the answer to this for auction sellers (or the companies that provide services to them) would be a tool which grooms auction copy before it goes live. Besides proofreading for spelling errors, maybe such a tool could check an auction listing against a "style guide" which encapsulates best practices of wording, layout, etc.
Posted by: Tom Cole | January 30, 2007 at 09:43 AM
The idea is not new. Advertisers have been buying misspelled keywords (and getting good results) on Infoseek, Yahoo, Google, GoTo, etc. for close to a decade. Applying it to auctions is a clever idea, though hardly novel.
However, like any other ideas, it's merely gives you a temporary unfair market advantage. Once everyone uses it, the game is over.
Posted by: Peter Lee | January 31, 2007 at 09:58 AM
Peter,
I agree. That's why I used the service first, then blogged about it :-)
Posted by: Baris Karadogan | January 31, 2007 at 10:35 AM