

Ask HN: please review a new product InvisibleHand - shadchnev

I'm involved in the development of InvisibleHand, a Firefox plugin that compares prices of products at online stores in real-time and displays notifications if a bargain is found at another web-site. It's not a startup of mine, I work for the company that develops it.
Right now the number of products in the DB is limited, as well as the number of retailers that we support but we're working on it. You can see the list of supported retailers at (http://getinvisiblehand.com/products-retailers/)<p>If you install the extension you should get notifications on<p>- http://www.buy.com/prod/nikon-d40-slr-digital-camera-kit-6-1mp-3008x2000-sd-sdhc-slot-nikon/q/loc/33409/203923451.html<p>- http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2262669<p>- http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000NRG9O6<p>What do you think of the product? Would you use it? Is it a problem that only one alternative is shown even if more are available? Is a Firefox notification a good idea or a popup window would be better? Is it a problem that occasionally wrong notifications are shown?<p>Oh, the link: http://www.getinvisiblehand.com/
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soundsop
I suggest adding some price-comparison functionality to your website. You can
let people try out your site and build trust to help convince them to download
and install a plugin.

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zitterbewegung
Edit the title so it says HN instead of NH sort of glaring typo.

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shadchnev
thanks!

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jrockway
Seems like one step away from being Evil. Imagine a similar extension that
would redirect your buy.com order to amazon.com with your affiliate ID
attached.

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shadchnev
We do use affiliate IDs but we don't ever redirect without user's explicit
permission (user has to click a button). Is it really evil? why?

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apgwoz
I think some people perceive affiliate marketing as an evil practice because
it's generally tied to spammy sites.

However, in this case, the evilness comes from the fact that you have immense
power. How do I know you're not linking me to a deal where you get a higher
commission, instead of the deal that saves me a little extra money?

Ultimately, a deal is a deal, and the maker of a product has the right to make
some money. Put up a disclaimer, and if people find it valuable, which it
sounds like they might, most ultimately won't even care.

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shadchnev
Yes, you're right, there is no way of knowing that we suggest the best bargain
and not the most profitable affiliate link. However, we promise we are not
doing this because we believe that the way to success is by providing the best
service for the user, so irrespective of the commission, you'll always get the
biggest price difference we have.

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slance
Very nice... I like how it's not too intrusive.

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fossb
++ for your app

