Web surfers always looking for that next bargain are going to find their browser toolbars becoming a little more crowded, as another comparison-shopping toolbar has debuted. NexTag, a comparison shopping Web site for products and services, this week announced that it has launched the NexTag ToolBar, a free browser plug-in available to users of Internet Explorer.

The NexTag ToolBar, a browser-resident version of NexTag's comparison shopping engine, enables users to "quickly compare prices and search for the best deals on millions of products and services, including hotels, flights, car rentals, computers, electronics, clothing, home and garden products, and more," according to a company statement. NexTag says the toolbar is designed to be completely spam- and spyware-free.

"We believe the NexTag ToolBar is a major innovation that can automatically save people time and money when shopping for just about anything," said Purnendu Ojha, CEO of NexTag. "With the NexTag ToolBar, a user can read a travel article, and without leaving the Web page on which the article is located, compare airfares, hotel rates, and even prices for an underwater camera to take on the trip."

The NexTag ToolBar is the first toolbar to provide a fast and convenient way to comparison shop online for a broad range of both products and services, according to the statement. Users can initiate a search on the toolbar or they can choose to be notified automatically with results when conducting a search on retail or travel sites. The NexTag ToolBar then returns a list of matching results from which a user can obtain detailed information on sellers, prices, product specifications, ratings/reviews, and even historical price data.


Photo: NexTag.com

NexTag ToolBar features include:
Product Search: Users can conduct searches within the NexTag ToolBar or automatically be notified with a list of highly relevant results within a single web browser, eliminating the need to visit multiple retailer sites. The NexTag ToolBar enables users to view the full list of search results or sort the list by best match or price.

Travel Meta Search: Users can search and compare rates for hotels, flights and car rentals. The NexTag ToolBar helps consumers find the best deals across multiple leading travel service providers, simultaneously. The toolbar presents a single, comprehensive list of travel options, ratings and rates for easy comparisons, representing a major improvement over searching multiple travel sites individually.

Customization: Users can easily customize automatic alert and display settings. Results can be displayed within a left browser frame or within the main browser. The NexTag ToolBar can also store a user's search history for quick access to common searches.

In August, Vendio launched its own comparison shopping toolbar which focuses more on consumer products.

The NexTag ToolBar is currently available free of charge to users of version 5.5 or higher of Microsoft Internet Explorer. Company spokesman Cam Tran said the ToolBar was built with Firefox in mind and NexTag intends to support it at some point in the future. There is no word on the availability of a version for Macintosh users.

Devin Comiskey is the Managing Editor of ECommerce-Guide.com.