So users want a list of items, without massive duplication (many shops selling the same toaster), while at the same time knowing the best price for each item. S

So users want a list of items, without massive duplication (many shops selling the same toaster), while at the same time knowing the best price for each item. Seems Amazon have this nailed with their multiple retailer options. Maybe I'm being cynical, but for the site he describes you'd get a whole ecosystem of "recommendation experts" or similar who will auto-spam replies on ToasterCo's behalf, and you'd also end up with standard keywords emerging, once people start to find words that correlate well with good replies. It would probably work best in areas where companies sell their products direct, and are small enough to give personalised replies. Large corporations would surely give their sales people a set of model answers and you would end up with replies indistinguishable from spam.