how does sites that do price comparison's get the info ?

[umen242]

Hello all
how does sites that do price comparison get there info about the prices and such?
does they use the sites web services api ? or they use web spiders?

 

[barman]

probably both depending on the site they're getting the info from. Big stores likely have API's.... but don't quote me onthat

 

[ImagesAndWords]

Many rely on live (dynamic) datafeeds

 

[xmcp123]

Scrape scrape scrape (duh duh duh duhduhduh)
Scrape scrape scrape (duh duh duh duhduhduh)
Scrape you booo-tay

 

[Rasta_Cook]

Hmm, I am building a site myself around manu different affiliate, but they are not big stores... My affiliate site will feature a list of "recommended shops" with prices, but I will have to enter the prices manually and check every few months to see if the prices changed which kinda really suck... I dont know how to do it otherwise...

 

[IronLogik]

yep, either via API or good ol' scraping.

 

[Ajay]

Dude, use a script. Check out pricetapestry.com they run a price comparision script. It may be what your after.