Comparison Shopping Engines are gold when it comes to product research. They’re filled with all the information you need to make your buying decision, especially if its the lowest price you’re after. Product feeds that adhere’s to specific data structures that Google, Yahoo, PriceGrabber, TheFind, etc is all you really need and they’ll do the rest; some are free like Google & Yahoo, but some are not like PriceGrabber and TheFind – Upload it and let it do it’s thing.

On Yahoo.com SERP, you’ll find a couple of unique features you can’t find on Google; “Ask a Friend”. Today, we got an online conversion from an organic visitor on Yahoo for the keyword, “Fluke Multimeter”. Here’s what I saw:

Notice the “Ask a Friend” beside the compare link with a Facebook icon next to it. When you click it, you get a popup window that prompts you to post asking your friends to comment what they recommend based on the first 4 product listings from the Yahoo Shopping results.

If your Facebook friends list includes someone in the same industry or uses the same tools or products as you, there’s a chance they may comment and recommend one of those products.

I think its a great example and definitely a first for a major search engine to integrate Facebook into SERP.

Great job Yahoo!

I use PayPal as one of the online payment gateways to process online transactions. At work today, we were discussing the additional International / Cross Border fees credit card companies like Visa started charging about a year or two ago. As there are several pages one could read to find out how much PayPal charges when accepting payments from another Country, I kept looking around the web to see if it was outlined in greater detail.

For example, how much does PayPal charge when I (Canadian account) receive payments from a US Customer (US Credit Card/Account)?

PayPal Fee Calculator by Ryan Olbe

I found a great tool by Ryan Olbe who created a PayPal Fee Calculator to help you understand what your fees would be depending on any scenario. Its a great tool, I highly recommend you check it out.

US – PPCalc.com
Canada – PPCalc.com/CA

Vimeo’s got their very own Music Store! Use the music clips in your movies and share them via Vimeo.

Looking through the list of available music clips, the price ranges from Free to $1.99. As a Mac user, if ever I get tired of using the same clips or run out of mixes with the built in clips in iMovie or Garage Band, I know that I can visit Vimeo’s Music Store and see if there’s anything cool I can incorporate into my videos.

Check out the new Vimeo Music Store!

I just downloaded the CinexPlayer app on to my iMac. I looked around and found that the CinexPlayer app had the most consistent high reviews for playing divx movies on the Apple iPad 2.

Be careful when you’re looking for an app for your iPad 2 because some only state their app is only compatible with the iPad, not specifying the iPad 2.

I came across CineXPlayer after reading several forums. Some mentions includea free version of OPlayer Lite via iPadForums.net but I could only find a paid version, Oplayer HD.

CineXPlayer, despite what one blog post said, is not free. But, at $2.99, its reasonable since it game me the clean functionality and reliability I was looking for. CinexPlayer works great so far!

Check it out here http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/id384098375

I’m attending the Search Engine Strategies SES Chicago 2011 Conference in November. I can’t wait to soak everything up; from meeting vendors to taking notes from leaders in the industry.

I got an email update from the conference yesterday telling me about the mobile app I can download earlier in the day. I installed it when I got home. I have to say I’m pretty impressed.

The home screen has a set of icons that help you navigate around. Sessions gives you a list of all the events throughout the day. Each day is broken down by time and has a star next to each event. When you press the star, it adds it to your schedule. At any time you click an event and it conflicts, a nice notification pops up and lets you know which event it conflicts with. Clicking an event shows extended event information, the speaker, a summary and the ability to add notes. Schedule is my favourite part of the app. It saves me time because I don’t have to enter my schedule into my calendar or scribble it in my notebook.

Thumbs up SES!

I took some screenshots of the app with my iPhone 4, have a look!

SES Chicago 2011 Mobile App Screenshots

SES Chicago 2011 Mobile App Features

• The Dashboard keeps you organized with up-to-the-minute info
• About This Show keeps all show information in one place
• Schedule-at-a-Glance can easily organize schedules with one click
• Alerts allow attendees to receive important real-time communications from the show organizer
• Built-in Twitter feed to follow and join in on the show chatter
• Rate the sessions you attend and comment on them, too
• Attendees can locate exhibitors they want to visit
• Use Community Photo to save and share your show experiences
• Connect with your colleagues with the Friends feature

You can visit the official app page here:
http://www.searchenginestrategies.com/chicago/mobile-app.php

For iPhone (iPod Touch & iPad): From your iPhone search the App Store for SES Chicago or point your iPhone’s mobile browser to http://bit.ly/nXHXPq (case sensitive).

For All Other Phone Types (including Android, BlackBerry and all other web browser-enabled phones): While on your smartphone, point your mobile browser to http://m.core-apps.com/seschicago11