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Show HN: Product search engine that Amazon will not like

2 points by httpsocool 10y ago

httpsocool 10y ago
First off, I can’t wait to show off the domain I got for it. Here it is: http://so.cool/ http://so.cool/ It is no secret: Amazon has invested millions to make us believe that it has the best prices on everything and that the top search result is indeed the thing you want to buy. I shop on Amazon a lot. I have very little free time, and the convenience of one-click ordering and fast home delivery is too good to pass up. After spending thousands upon thousands of dollars playing by their rules, I decided to write my own Amazon product search tool – one that prioritizes value to me as a shopper. I built in a ton of small features that: a) allow me to quickly find items that are actually attractively priced, b) make the most of Amazon’s money saving features (coupons, subscriptions, etc.) and c) avoid marketing tricks that they subtly plant into the search results to maximize their profits (add-on items, Pantry, etc). I implemented functionality that is widely known to be impossible to do (such as sorting search results by Prime price, sorting and filtering by number of reviews). I added quick links to other useful tools for Amazon shopping, such as fakespot and camelcamelcamel, and quick pop-ups that check prices for a given item at other retailers’ websites. To avoid sounding like I am trying too hard to promote my website, I will not go into describing every little bit of the functionality here. I will also say that I built the site to “scratch my own itch” and it is not making me any money (although if it really takes off and reaches a point when I need to start investing into infrastructure I will either have to look for ways to monetize it or will simply take it offline). Anyway, check it out, let me know your thoughts or simply add it to your online shopping tool belt. All of those things I will appreciate equally.
gnode 10y ago
It appears to only be for the US Amazon. Is there a way to search amazon.co.uk, amazon.de, etc. The site looks promising, but without this, is useless to me, living in the UK.
- httpsocool 10y ago
  Noted, thank you. It is definitely something that I can add. As I mentioned in the comments, the site originated as a project for my own personal use and I live in the US, but if it evolves into something that the public shows interest in and I turn it into a side business, expanding to other territories will definitely be on my radar.

2 points by httpsocool 10y ago

First off, I can’t wait to show off the domain I got for it. Here it is: http://so.cool/ http://so.cool/ It is no secret: Amazon has invested millions to make us believe that it has the best prices on everything and that the top search result is indeed the thing you want to buy. I shop on Amazon a lot. I have very little free time, and the convenience of one-click ordering and fast home delivery is too good to pass up. After spending thousands upon thousands of dollars playing by their rules, I decided to write my own Amazon product search tool – one that prioritizes value to me as a shopper. I built in a ton of small features that: a) allow me to quickly find items that are actually attractively priced, b) make the most of Amazon’s money saving features (coupons, subscriptions, etc.) and c) avoid marketing tricks that they subtly plant into the search results to maximize their profits (add-on items, Pantry, etc). I implemented functionality that is widely known to be impossible to do (such as sorting search results by Prime price, sorting and filtering by number of reviews). I added quick links to other useful tools for Amazon shopping, such as fakespot and camelcamelcamel, and quick pop-ups that check prices for a given item at other retailers’ websites. To avoid sounding like I am trying too hard to promote my website, I will not go into describing every little bit of the functionality here. I will also say that I built the site to “scratch my own itch” and it is not making me any money (although if it really takes off and reaches a point when I need to start investing into infrastructure I will either have to look for ways to monetize it or will simply take it offline). Anyway, check it out, let me know your thoughts or simply add it to your online shopping tool belt. All of those things I will appreciate equally.

gnode 10y ago

It appears to only be for the US Amazon. Is there a way to search amazon.co.uk, amazon.de, etc. The site looks promising, but without this, is useless to me, living in the UK.

httpsocool 10y ago
Noted, thank you. It is definitely something that I can add. As I mentioned in the comments, the site originated as a project for my own personal use and I live in the US, but if it evolves into something that the public shows interest in and I turn it into a side business, expanding to other territories will definitely be on my radar.