How the pricefindr.ie website works…
A quick post to answer a few questions/queries I’ve received about the website these have been mostly in relation to how the site works.
At the heart of it pricefindr is a vertical search engine, its current focus is on Music CDs. It is based on the same principles as most search engines such as google, yahoo etc. it is made up of three core components.
The pricefindr crawler is focused on extracting price and product information from particular websites. It regularly visits these websites checking the prices and product information this information is then used to create the second core component the pricefindr index. This is essentially a massive database populated with the information the crawler has discovered.
All information extracted by the crawler is stored in the index. The index is optimised for speed, performance and fast access, it allows us to find relevant products for searches. The website is build on top of the index.
- Website (User Interface)
Finally the last component this is the website it is the user interface build on top of the index. It allows the user to enter searches, compare prices, sort prices etc. It attempts to take all the information captured in the index and make it available to the user.
Other
How up to date are the prices displayed?
The prices displayed are correct as of the last time the pricefindr crawler visited the website. When viewing a products detail you should see information telling you the last time it was checked (example: Last checked: 10 Nov 2007)
Are there any plans to expand into other markets?
At this point in time not just yet. I’m still working through a number of user interface issues. (Frontend website work is not my strong point!) hopefully when I get these resolved and the site becomes a little more polished I’ll add more markets probably starting with DVD’s
Is this just an affiliate backed website?
No, currently none of the links are affiliates. The websites indexed are my own personal choices and ones I have used in the past to purchase from. I hope to add more websites to pricefindr in the future so I am always looking for suggestions of websites you would like to see added.
Hopefully that answers most of the questions. Any more let me know.
Tags: ireland, music, music cds, pricefindr, search engine