Hey guys,

I was here reading through some of the posts about google the other day and had a thought. After speaking to my boss about it as well as some of my colleagues, I thought I'd ask your opinions and maybe even pick up an investor or two.

I am an active member on IRC networks worldwide and have made somewhat of a name for myself as being 'that guy who works in the IT industry'. As such, I often have people coming up to me and asking me how exactly I make a living 'off the web'. Now, I usually tell them about my business and stuff, but lately I decided I would start recommending Affiliate programs and stuff and was amazed to see how much effort people would put in just for a couple of bucks.

A client recently approached me about a Search Engine / Web Crawler which we designed, but after all the effort, the deal fell through and I got stuck with a DBengine and a front end. Wondering what to do with this, I hit on the concept.

To my knowledge, there isn't a 'well known' directory (which is simple and easy to use) where people can search for a particular item and recieve a list of prices and stores where they can purchase the item from. Now, with a rather substantial amount of capital, I reckon that an initiative like this could take off with a boom.

What I am looking at doing, is finding people who will submit prices, links etc. into the database manually (and keep it up-to-date) for a couple of cents per store (and per item). For example, if I dish out a list of 400 items to one person, tell them to find each of those 400 items in at least 3-5 different online stores and then submit it into the database and maintain the prices for 6-8 months...I'm sure that people would be happy to do this for a couple of cents per item they submit (and a recurring bonus for every time the price is updated).

This 'online store directory' could be reference to nearly any type of item, from watches...books....perfumes....computer software....web hosting...(You get the point).

Online Stores could get 'Gold Affiliate' status (and therefore appear higher up the list of search items) for a per-item fee and banners accross the site could generate a fair amount of income as the site grows.

I am looking at looking into outsourcing my marketting program as I would like to launch it as a sort of worldwide campaign (not only web based...but in other forms of media as well). If I am going to do this, I'm gonna do it BIG TIME.

For this reason, I would be looking for a good deal of investors and advertisers from the word GO, as well as a good international marketting firm and a powerful (ultra-high-quality) web host, who would be able to offer a discount, for a period contract whereby we 'promise' to keep the site on their hosting services for an length of time and put a small banner ad on the site.

Well, there you go. Thats my idea. I'm sure it can work, but as I said, there is no use doing it if you dont want to do it PROPERLY. We are talking about a very large project, that 'could' (if handled correctly) make investors very satisfied.

Hit me with your ideas, suggestions, support or **SPONSORSHIP** and we can go from there!

Good...my fingers can have a rest now...
Regards,
~Equinox

and how does this differ from any of the hundreds of sites doing price comparisons now - excepting they access the systems atomatically, thus removing the manual entry of details.

kelkoo, pricerunner, etc etc

Equinox, isn't this what Froogle, BizRate, DealTime and tens of other popular resources (http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&l...w.bizrate.com/) do? Moreover, their systems do it automatically instead of utilizing manual labor.

How would your project be different? What would your competitive advantage be?

Best,

Well I think the problem with auto programs are that merchandise companies can code their sites or directories in such ways as to fool most auto entry programs and get their products better ratings and listings.

on the other hand, if you do it manually you'll need someone trusted to review each pricelist entered to make sure it's not just random numbers and products entered by someone wanting to make "a quick buck".

To counter this u can always design some "loyalty" system to award dedicated users who puts some effort into providing best information.

Overall it sounds like a damn interesting idea. I'll be more than happy to help you Ben.Maybe be your first "product lister".

A) I think that through the manual side of it, you are gaining an element of stability (as many automated processes are a bit 'off')...some scan through a web page and are told to stop when the find a '$' sign, but sometimes that is merely "$5 off"...

Secondly, I think what 'could' potentially set this apart is having more of an 'in touch' relationship with the browser, rather than things like bizrate which are just numbers everywhere and very little else. Sure, its understandable that these things require money to keep them running, but sometimes the advertising side of it gets the upper hand on the site.

I want to make a site as user (and idiot) friendly as possible...and market that way as well...

Thanks for asking that question Artashes.
~Equinox

Equinox ... about 9 years ago I came up with an idea which has similarities to what you are talking about ... but its still very different in other aspects and would target a wider audience. I gave up on the idea 8 years ago when my health went to heck in a handbasket. But I have not seen anything on the net exactly like it ... The "idea" I had & my business plan were assessed at the time by a financial institution which agreed to provide the initial financing and an accounting firm which projected that the viability & success of the concept could be very financially rewarding.

I did not want to detail it here ... unless you would like to hear it. Or ... if you might want to hear it "off forum" you can email or PM me

There is no way that I can ever in the foreseeable future act on my idea these days ... so ... if someone else wants to try it I sure do not mind sharing.

Take care
Peter

pmhoran : I'd love to hear about it. PM me if you would like...then you can keep it a little more 'private'...not spill the beans too much

Okay ... will PM you I am not so much worried about spilling the beans as I was about the possibility of my post unintentionally hijacking your thread

Peter

Edit: Message was too long for PM ... so hope you don't mind I emailed it instead.

http://www.pricewatch.com - that's what I use and it seems to do a good job. Sounds like what you discribed. I liked their old site design better but over the past couple months it has changed about 10 times.