What is a shopping search engine, and how is it different from a deal site?

A deal site waits for someone to post a discount and then shows you a feed of whatever came in that day. A shopping search engine works the other way around. You type in the product you want, and it goes and finds where to buy it and whether the price is good, right then, whether or not anyone posted about it.

Both are useful. They just solve different problems, and mixing them up is why people end up disappointed with one or the other.

What a deal site is actually good at

Sites like Slickdeals thrive on community and timing. Someone finds a price drop, posts it, other people vote it up. That is great for browsing when you are not looking for anything specific and just want to see what is cheap today.

What a shopping search engine is built for

QuickFinds works more like a search bar pointed at every store at once. You search a specific product, it matches the exact item rather than accessories with a similar name, and it shows you which retailer has it for the best legitimate price. It also shows a 90 day price trend and a typical price read, so you know if the number in front of you is actually low.

When you need which one

• Already know what you want to buy: use a shopping search engine.
• Just want to browse for inspiration: a deal feed is fine.
• Buying something you have never shopped for before: typical price context helps more than a coupon.
• Want to compare five stores without opening five tabs: this is the job a search engine does automatically.

Where QuickFinds is still catching up

It does not have the years of crowdsourced deal posts that Slickdeals has built up, and its merchant list, while growing, is not as large as Google Shopping's. If you want to browse a community thread of people arguing about whether a mattress deal is real, a forum is more fun. If you already know the mattress you want, a search engine gets you an answer faster.

The practical habit

Use a deal feed when you are killing ten minutes and open to being surprised. Use a shopping search engine the moment you already have a product in mind, because that is when tab-hopping between five retailer sites actually costs you time.