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Ask HN: please review a new product InvisibleHand

10 points by shadchnev ↗ HN
I'm involved in the development of InvisibleHand, a Firefox plugin that compares prices of products at online stores in real-time and displays notifications if a bargain is found at another web-site. It's not a startup of mine, I work for the company that develops it. Right now the number of products in the DB is limited, as well as the number of retailers that we support but we're working on it. You can see the list of supported retailers at (http://getinvisiblehand.com/products-retailers/)

If you install the extension you should get notifications on

- http://www.buy.com/prod/nikon-d40-slr-digital-camera-kit-6-1mp-3008x2000-sd-sdhc-slot-nikon/q/loc/33409/203923451.html

- http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2262669

- http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000NRG9O6

What do you think of the product? Would you use it? Is it a problem that only one alternative is shown even if more are available? Is a Firefox notification a good idea or a popup window would be better? Is it a problem that occasionally wrong notifications are shown?

Oh, the link: http://www.getinvisiblehand.com/

11 comments

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jrockway
Seems like one step away from being Evil. Imagine a similar extension that would redirect your buy.com order to amazon.com with your affiliate ID attached.
shadchnev
We do use affiliate IDs but we don't ever redirect without user's explicit permission (user has to click a button). Is it really evil? why?
apgwoz
I think some people perceive affiliate marketing as an evil practice because it's generally tied to spammy sites.

However, in this case, the evilness comes from the fact that you have immense power. How do I know you're not linking me to a deal where you get a higher commission, instead of the deal that saves me a little extra money?

Ultimately, a deal is a deal, and the maker of a product has the right to make some money. Put up a disclaimer, and if people find it valuable, which it sounds like they might, most ultimately won't even care.

shadchnev
Yes, you're right, there is no way of knowing that we suggest the best bargain and not the most profitable affiliate link. However, we promise we are not doing this because we believe that the way to success is by providing the best service for the user, so irrespective of the commission, you'll always get the biggest price difference we have.
sho
"the evilness comes from the fact that you have immense power"

This is exactly right, IMO. If your product becomes successful, it will be incredibly tempting to tamper with the results to maximise your profits. You might think you are an honest person, and I'm sure you are, but what if one day you realise that just by making one little change, sending people to shop X instead of shop Y, you can make, say, $1000/day commission .. how many people wouldn't at least be tempted?

Being put in this kind of situation corrupts almost everyone. Because of this, I think people are very suspicious of affiliate arrangements.

I'd advise you to make it very clear that you're sending people to affiliate links - maybe even go over the top into radical transparency and explicitly give another link, the non-affiliate one. Put (Support this plugin!) and (Do not support this plugin.) after the links, give people the very clear option to choose one of the two. Make it clear that the non-affiliate link is exactly the same price as the affiliate one. If they feel like they are making the choice, many will no doubt opt to support you. But if they get the idea there is anything sneaky about it, they may get very hostile. I would really err on the side of transparency.

Anyway, just some ideas ..

bigbang
Why is this evil? As an user trying to shop around, its a great way to get notified on a cheaper retailer. As long as, the cheapest retailer is shown and not always the same retailer or the one who pays more to show up in the plugin, this seems ok to me.
soundsop
I suggest adding some price-comparison functionality to your website. You can let people try out your site and build trust to help convince them to download and install a plugin.
slance
Very nice... I like how it's not too intrusive.
fossb
++ for your app