Talk:Price comparison service

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[edit] Structure and NPOV Questions

I'm not sure that I have written this in the best way. Many of the early services websites now do not work, so I didn't bother linking. Following what seems to be the style elsewhere on Wikipedia, I have linked to a list of working price comparison sites elsewhere. I have also merged this article with Price engine and Online shopping directories. If anybody thinks that was the wrong decision, please advise what to do instead.

Also - I have quite a good knowledge of the price comparison industry as I work in it. I have tried to maintain a completely neutral point of view, but if it seems that I haven't please feel free to say. Also, that means that I know some information that I can't actually find sources for on Google. Is it worthwhile adding that information? Blowski 20:26, 1 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Price comparison service

What a great topic, will be following this with interest. How can I contact Blowski?

Probably best just to leave a message on my talk page. Blowski 08:29, 3 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Other Price Comparison Sites

This page is mostly about the technology of price comparison. There is a small history that includes when the biggest services were launched. It is not a directory of price comparison services - there are over 100 UK based sites alone, so this article would become meaningless. Those sites that can be considered notable are listed in the List of price comparison services article, so please add any other sites to that page. Blowski 13:04, 8 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Other Price Comparison Sites

That list of price services disappeared? now the links are to a blank page? Sept 9.

I suspect this is because Wikipedia is not a directory. I've trimmed the external links down a bit. I'm inclined to think we should get rid of all of them - links to sites that discuss that actual technology and business issues invovled in running a prce comaprison service would be more appropriate. --Siobhan Hansa 05:15, 3 November 2006 (UTC)

You are wrong. Wikipedia IS a directory. Pricewatch is no longer listed. I want to get a list of price comparison sites. SIOBHAN, you have made wikipedia LESS useful and have thus harmed the public. I hope you are happy with yourself. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 75.63.57.171 (talk • contribs).

You can try our category:Price comparison services for a listing of all the articles in Wikipedia on price comparison service companies (thanks - you've inspired me to put this link in the article). Otherwise you'd be better off trying an actual directory service like http://dmoz.org/Home/Consumer_Information/Price_Comparisons/ -- Siobhan Hansa 12:17, 11 April 2007 (UTC)

This page is being manipulated to only identify a couple of comparison search sites. SIOBHAN may be affiliated with one of these (nextag?) and is willfully diluting the usefulness of wikipedia for his own benefit. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.4.29.81 (talk) 16:00, August 27, 2007 (UTC)

I'm not affiliated with any price comparison service. I am a member of WikiProject Spam which is how I first came upon this page. More than that I am interested in a neutral and encyclopedic article which is why I have made an effort to establish objective standards by which we can judge whether to mention a particular engine. I think there is also a good case to be made for not listing any of the engines. As an encyclopedia article this should be about the technology and the impact on society, rather than individual service providers. -- SiobhanHansa 16:22, 28 August 2007 (UTC)

I'd be very much for not listing ANY search engines if that's the intent. However, once you list one comparison engine, then you're being not truthful to your own standards by refusing to list other, legitimate such sites. I'd recommend either removing all, or allowing all those that are honest, legitimate sites that serve the internet public to be listed. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 72.29.239.254 (talk) 03:40, August 29, 2007 (UTC)

That's quite an accusation. In what way am I not being truthful? I haven't listed any individual engine - just cleaned up lists that were way out of control and tried, repeatedly, to engage editors in discussion on how we can make the article encyclopedic. Your insinuations about my motives are unjust, unsupportable, and completely out of keeping with our policy.
This discussion thread and the one below titled "External links" were originally about an external links section that is no longer in the article. You can see more on what I had attempted to do with the example listings that there is currently a lot of back and forth over at the thread at the bottom titled "Example listings". As I said I think there is a good case for not listing any, although I do not believe, as an encyclopedia, our choice is between none or all. Listing all entities in a broad and expanding category is almost never appropriate for an encyclopedia. We are editors and exercising editorial judgment is one of our most important tasks. Perhaps you could add to the thread below with some thoughts on what would make good encyclopedic content and why rather than making baseless assertions about my motives. -- SiobhanHansa 11:57, 29 August 2007 (UTC)

Simply put, your claims do not match your actions. I'd assert that by leaving ANY search engine listed, you're absolutely, positively and very clearly violating your own policy. You may not like being told that, but that is indeed EXACTLY what you're doing. Unless you remove all, then you're creating a directory, and in fact a very special directory that's partial to the ones you choose to keep listing. By doing so, and removing other legitimate sites, you're doing a disservice to the internet community at large and the wikipedia community in particular. Please be consistent, otherwise why be an editor? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 72.29.239.254 (talk) 13:13, August 29, 2007 (UTC)

What policy of my own? Directories are not against my policy, they're against Wikipedia's policies on the basis they this is an encyclopedia and directories are not. Listing a few of the largest is not creating a directory - it's pointing out the biggest players. Some people consider that encyclopedic. I think it's marginal, especially in the absence of prose providing decent context. However others editors apparently thought some inclusion was important so I tried to work with consensus. I came up with some simple criteria that were as objective as I could manage and listed them below - inviting comment and alternative suggestions. That's not enforcing my policy, it's attempting to collaborate. So how are your own actions, which seem to consist entirely of adding a single, non-notable engine to the list, helping to improve the article? What's the point of that? -- SiobhanHansa 14:23, 29 August 2007 (UTC)

I'm amazed at the clear double standard. Enough said. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 72.29.239.254 (talk) 10:55, 31 August 2007 (UTC)

[edit] External links

We seem to be a magnet for people trying to promote their price comparison service. Unless anyone objects I'm going to remove all the links to price comparison services and keep the external links section for links to good information about comparson sservices, the technology they use or academic research on their use. If people want to find price comparison services google does a pretty good job of bringing up a big list. --Siobhan Hansa 16:05, 6 November 2006 (UTC)

I've removed the whole section - it's just a directory (which people can easily use google for) and has been attracting persistent attempts to include particular links without attempts at discussion.
Links to reliable research on price comparison services or their impact on business might be appropriate though (and useful for developing the article too). --Siobhan Hansa 16:46, 7 November 2006 (UTC)

I disagree with Siobh.. this page should serve as a information source about valid price comparison sites. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 72.29.239.254 (talk) 10:38, August 28, 2007 (UTC)

This bit was specifically about the external links section for which we have guidelines that these links fall foul of (as described above). For the article in general we can certainly be a source of encyclopedic information about notable comparison services but I have concerns about us simply being a listing (which I is what I understand you to be suggesting). Do you have a suggestion for how that can be done in an encyclopedic manner that would meet our neutral point of view, verification and not a directory policies? -- SiobhanHansa 16:13, 28 August 2007 (UTC)

[edit] PageRank of Wikipedia

Wikipedia has a highest rank at Google: http://www.google.com/Top/Computers/Software/Groupware/Wiki/Topics/?il=1 Wikipedia is a directory indeed: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Price_comparison_services Many people try to publish links to their websites on Wikipedia to improve PageRank. Unfortunately, equality does not mean 'improvement' over other's PageRanks... Some major players are listed in Wikipedia-Directory. For instance, NexTag. It has more referrals from Wikipedia than CNET. Overral PageRank of CNET is higher. (Funtick 20:39, 29 November 2006 (UTC))

[edit] Grocery?

What about groceries? Are there any up and running comparison pricing sites for groceries? --195.210.230.226 22:31, 10 January 2007 (UTC)

Are there any price comparison portals that compare groceries exclusively?

[edit] Example listings

I've trimmed these down to include only sites that compare like for like products (which is the model described) and to highlight only the largest one or two from each geographic market (since we're not a directory and we have a category to link to articles on significant, individual engines). I used Alexa to determine the largest sites, but if someone has a better way of gauging please suggest it. -- Siobhan Hansa 13:07, 29 May 2007 (UTC)

Having the examples just seems to encourage people to add more and more without any real encyclopedic value. I suggest getting rid of all them and only mentioning a particular service provider if there is some reason to do so that provides encyclopedic information about the subject of price comparison sites in general. Any objections? -- SiobhanHansa 00:09, 10 September 2007 (UTC)
Since there were no objections I've gone ahead and removed all of them. -- SiobhanHansa 15:23, 11 September 2007 (UTC)