Ask.com jumps on the bargain hunting bandwagon
Everyone loves a deal and that's especially true when times are tough. So it's no surprise that bargain hunting online has become an even more popular pastime for consumers. From coupon sites to cashback sites, consumers looking to spend money have plenty of ways to get more bang for the buck.
Helping them get that bang for the buck is something naturally suited to search engines. And Ask.com is joining the fray with a new service called Ask Deals.
What if Google gets into the lead gen business?
This week Google was sued by Lending Tree, a company whose website enables consumers looking for mortgages and other loans to connect with lenders. LendingTree alleges that Google is planning to launch an online loan exchange of its own and that it will use technology provided by one of LendingTree's vendor. The problem: LendingTree alleges the vendor is contractually forbidden from working with LendingTree competitors, which LendingTree clearly believes Google is.
For its part, Google says that it's simply "working on a small ad unit test that will run against a limited number of mortgage-related search queries in the U.S." So while we don't yet have enough in the way of hard facts to evaluate the merits of LendingTree's claims, the lawsuit raises an interesting question: what if Google gets into the lead gen business?
Mobile site review: Newsnow.co.uk
News aggregator Newsnow has recently released a version of its website optimised for mobile users.
Newsnow uses a wide range of sources, I find it useful for keeping up with football news for instance, so how well has it translated to mobile?
Q&A: Dan Hart of nowfly.co.uk
Nowfly.co.uk is a newly launched flights search engine which aggregates flights from 340 airlines.
I reviewed the website yesterday, and have also been finding out more from founder and CEO Dan Hart...
Site review: Nowfly.co.uk
Flights search engine Nowfly.co.uk launched this week, offering fast and accurate results from a wide range of flight operators.
There are already plenty of travel comparison sites out there; I have looked at both Travel.co.uk and Skyscanner in the last six months, so how does Nowfly compare?
Q&A: Daniel Lee of Globrix.com
Globrix is a property search engine that was launched earlier this year, backed by News International.
I looked at the site a few weeks ago, and was impressed by its simple, stripped-down user interface, as well as the number of listings.
Here, we talk to Globrix CEO Daniel Lee about the online property market and where he sees the site heading...
Site review: Fish4.co.uk redesign
Fish4 launched a revamped version of its classifieds website last week, aiming to provide more useful advice to searchers alongside its jobs, car, homes and holiday listings.
As well as the new section, Fish4 says it has also improved functionality and added a new search tool.
I've been taking a look at the site to see how it measures up...
Q&A: Gareth Williams, CEO of Skyscanner
Skyscanner is a website that allows users to search for flights by price and location; according to Hitwise, it has an 11.34% share of the UK travel search market.
Recently, Skyscanner has been making a few changes to its website, aimed at improving the user experience.
We have been talking to CEO Gareth Williams about the changes and finding out more about the site...
Q&A: Philip James, CEO of wine comparison site Snooth
Snooth, launched in the US last year, is a social wine recommendation and price comparison site which aims to be the world's largest wine site.
In the same way that music sites like Last.fm help you discover new music, Snooth recommends wine to users based on the bottles that users with similar tastes enjoy.
We caught up with Snooth CEO Philip James to talk about the site...
Site review: property search engine Globrix
Launched earlier this year, Globrix is a property search engine which claims to have nearly every property on the market in the UK listed on its site.
Rather than charging estate agents a fee, as sites like Rightmove do, Globrix scrapes listings from estate agents' websites, hoping to make the site more comprehensive than its rivals.
Social media: the best and worst of 2009
Email marketing: six steps to improving customer engagement in 2010
Web 2.0
Graham Charlton
Strategy & Planning
