So how do you find the best deals online? Search, naturally. While Google and Bing are quite good at detecting “commercial intent” in queries and will quite often provide you with attractive shopping options in standard search results, there are also more specialized shopping search services that will likely give you better results. Here’s a look at the major players in shopping search, starting with the two search juggernauts.
Shopping With Google & Bing
Both Google and Bing have had shopping search options for ages. But both introduced big changes over the past couple of years that changed the experience for shoppers, and in many cases ended up costing merchants who previously could get products listed without charge.
In 2012, Google announced that Google Product Search would be getting a new name, Google Shopping. It also made the unprecedented move of doing away with free listings for merchants.
Then in August 2013 Bing followed suit, replacing Bing Shopping with Bing Product Search, which simply integrates product results within Bing search results rather than in a separate destination. Unlike Google, Bing also continues to offer both paid and free ways for merchants to have product listings.
More on Google and Bing shopping options, including Bing’s “Scroogled” attack campaign on Google:
- Microsoft: Bing Shopping & Cashback
- Google: Product Search
- Bing Attacks Google Shopping With “Scroogled” Campaign, Forgets It’s Guilty Of Same Problems