Right – I’ve invented a new phrase (putting my money where my mouth is) and stating it right here so this time the name doesn’t get stolen! ha!

Social Price Comparison is the ability to actually show where other users went to go and buy a product, in effect showing where the crowd went, and in particular, if anyone in your trusted network went to one of the merchants in the list.

The idea behind this is that from my Kelkoo days, I remember that a lot of people didn’t always go to the cheapest merchant as they wanted some confidence that the brand was trusted and to feel comfortable that they’re going to a place others have been before and approved of. Often you can see merchant ratings to help in this decision but they’re often skewed and not that helpful, but seeing where people you trust went to go and buy something – is pretty intuitive.

A second point is that a few people use multiple price comparison engines and sites to make sure they really are getting the best price, and this was mentioned by Simon Willison in a previous post on Kelkoo and Yahoo. So, we’ve put some tabs down the left hand side in which you can flick between the results for places like Amazon, Shopping.com, and Kelkoo (with more to come).

(click it for the full annotated version)

You’ll also notice in the middle right, an area showing “the best price found so far is merchant X via price comparison engine Y”, which keeps a running check on where the best price so far actually is, and you’ll be able to suggest other places in the future if you’ve found it cheaper – and we’ll add them in.

So – this is phase 1 of our “where to buy section of the site” and while it’s not our main product or focus – I definitely wanted to go back to my original principles of really helping people find the best price or the best deal at a trusted place that people you trust have been to.