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PriceZombie is shutting down

pricezombie.com

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Re: PriceZombie is shutting down

#31

Post by great_kraken »

cryowaffle wrote: post #12
great_kraken wrote: post #7

Honestly I'm (selfishly) kind of glad that they're shutting down, as awful as that is. I browse Reddit a lot and the fact that every single time somebody posted a product, there would always be a PriceZombie bot commenting bugged me to no end.

I don't know if is a RES feature or not but you can hover over a name and click "Ignore"

Yeah, it's an RES feature. I never noticed that actually because I keep most features of RES turned off, including Tagging, which I believe that is under, after searching for what you said.

Re: PriceZombie is shutting down

#32

Post by dan-silver »

toomuchtodo wrote: post #16
NicoJuicy wrote: post #9

Can you create this a self hosted application? Then Amazon can't really track this ( i suppose). They should suddenly start tracking thousands of affliates and you could earn some money from it :) ( i suppose) Eg. Something like https://sendy.co/ , i believe they earn plenty of money also :p

Chrome extension for scraping and affiliate link placement?

If Amazon found out they can still shut down that affiliate link.

Re: PriceZombie is shutting down

#34

Post by great_kraken »

nathancahill wrote: post #10
great_kraken wrote: post #7

Honestly I'm (selfishly) kind of glad that they're shutting down, as awful as that is. I browse Reddit a lot and the fact that every single time somebody posted a product, there would always be a PriceZombie bot commenting bugged me to no end.

I've found that very helpful. Otherwise, I feel like I'm gambling when I buy something on Amazon. I could be getting the lowest price, or the highest. Amazon's price games are the worst (I know all stores do that to some extent, but Amazon's price swings are much bigger.. +-75% anecdotally)

Yeah, I guess I'd rather search myself if I'm actually considering buying a product. And most of the time, if I'm participating somewhere, I'm not actually looking for purchase advice myself, just reading, helping out, or discussing.

Re: PriceZombie is shutting down

#36

Post by JBReefer »

Jemmeh wrote: post #19
ap22213 wrote: post #13

It seems kind of extreme to shut down based on that. Wouldn't the technology be useful for other uses? I'd imagine that some would pay for that kind of historical data.

The thing is there are other websites giving that historical data away for free. Their affiliate accounts haven't been shut down (yet?). So PriceZombie just can't compete. Makes me kind of wonder if they were just the "top" website doing this, and so they suffered from too much success.

It's because they compared with other services, and Amazon has been raising prices across the board lately, which they don't really want people to figure out.

Re: PriceZombie is shutting down

#37

Post by AznHisoka »

Etheryte wrote: post #21
elbigbad wrote: post #8

This sucks, but unfortunately is something that is not unlikely to happen when one's whole service is hosted or relies on a third party API for its data. I recall something similar happening with a service that relied on the Google Maps API to draw coordinates or something. And Google pulled API access because the service was too similar to what Google Maps did with trip directions, or something. Unfortunately this i…

The point here is not that they're relying on a third party, but the fact that Amazon banned them from the api while their competitors/alternatives can still use it without constraint.

I can only accept that argument if you're willing to say "Hey Amazon, I'm willing to donate $XXX,000 for you guys to hire X people to police everyone and ban anyone violating the TOS". No? Then your complaining is just bitterness, that's all.

Re: PriceZombie is shutting down

#38

Post by Cthulhu_ »

manmal wrote: post #35

Here in Austria, Amazon pays the major price comparison website to be listed: www.geizhals.at And I hear it's not cheap for them.

Well, being listed on a price comparison website is basically advertising, and can funnel a lot of traffic to Amazon if they are often the cheaper or better choice. This service just used referrals to make a bit of money instead, probably because there's a lot more price comparison website competition in the US and Amazon doesn't want to fund them all to get listed.

They get away with it too, because a price comparison website is not feasible without having amazon as one of the shops.

Re: PriceZombie is shutting down

#39

Post by JoblessWonder »

rory096 wrote: post #3
nefitty wrote: post #2

Damn, this is exactly what I've been looking for for the last year. Any alternatives?

CamelCamelCamel. Amazon only, though – and who knows if they'll be shut down too under this policy.

I think PriceZombie ran afoul because they compared Amazon's history to other competitor's websites like Walmart, Best Buy, etc.

CamelCamelCamel just compares the current Amazon price to historical Amazon prices.

One site makes it much easier to encourage you to buy on another site, one site makes it much easier to optimize your purchase while still remaining with Amazon.

Re: PriceZombie is shutting down

#40

Post by jonknee »

rory096 wrote: post #3
nefitty wrote: post #2

Damn, this is exactly what I've been looking for for the last year. Any alternatives?

CamelCamelCamel. Amazon only, though – and who knows if they'll be shut down too under this policy.

> This situation is further compounded by our competitors (who only index Amazon) being allowed to continue despite utilizing Amazon's data in the same manner as we did without facing similar bans.

Looks like being Amazon only may be what is keeping them alive. I enjoy CamelCamelCamel a lot, it's fun to put in a low-ball price target and then months later get an email that it has been met.

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