Most of us software nerds harbor a gadget fetish as well. After all there's nothing that makes the latest version of Photoshop sing like a blazing fast new PC. But hardware isn't cheap and finding the best deal is always a challenge. Luckily there are some great bargain hunting sites out there that can take the work out of finding a deal — like Bountii, which launched not too long ago.
Bountii incorporates a few ideas from some of our favorite bargain sites, like OfferTrax or Retrevo but adds a some nice new features of its own. Where Retrevo concentrates on reviews and articles about products, Bountii cuts to the chase — finding the best price.
Bountii offers one of the best features found in OfferTrax — RSS feeds for price changes. But Bountii doesn't just track price drops on individual items, it offers a whole subsection dedicated to items whose prices are headed down.
Bountii also takes the RSS feature and turns it on its head, offering a way to broadcast out the best deals for any item. There are two ways you can take advantage of the broadcast feature: by using the very nice cut and paste embedding code, or by diving into the full-fledged API.
If you're a seller on EBay, for instance, you could use the embed tools as a way to prove your price is lower than what's available elsewhere on the web.
Another possibility is using the API to display items relevant to something you're writing about. For instance, if you post a review of the EeePC on your gadget blog you could easily embed a direct link to EeePC bargains through Bountii's tools.
Obviously that opens up a nice revenue sharing possibility, but at the moment such a feature doesn't exist. John Puskarich, co-founder of Bountii, tells Wired.com that the company is “currently offering a beta version” of revenue sharing tools to a few people. We expect that, when and if such tools become available to the general public, Bountii will be a popular way for tech bloggers to make some extra advertising money.
Another feature unique to Bountii is what the site calls “Price Hunting.” Bountii will pay you if you can find an item advertised for less than the lowest price on the site. There are some restrictions (like the price you find needs to be from a legit store, not some Russian warez site), but it is possible to make a little cash for your bargain hunting efforts.
The Price Hunting feature also means that Bountii can pull not just from its own search spiders, but also human efforts as well. As Puskarich says, “building in this human component to our price search engine allows us to show shoppers prices like those a store only tells certain people about.” If you're on an exclusive mailing list that gets special pricing, let Bountii know about it and they'll give you some cash for your efforts.
Bountii is simple and easy to use and features a clean design. I doubt that any one site can ever really fill all your bargain hunting needs, but using Bountii in conjunction with something like Retrevo or OfferTrax gives you a nice combination of features for finding what you want and making sure you don't spend too much getting it.
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