Microsoft enters comparison shopping market

Chicago (IL) - Microsoft will announce on Tuesday WindowsMarketPlace.com, a new service which is described as tool to "discover a world of products that work with Windows" - but reveals itself as another entry in the increasingly crowded field of comparison shopping tools.

Microsoft has been quietly testing the new site for at least three weeks in a public preview and has been adding products and retailers. Targeted only at Windows users, the service provides access to a range of hardware and software through a number of retailers. According to Microsoft’s press agency AEG, the site allows users "to find information about virtually any software or hardware that works with recent versions of Microsoft Windows."

A closer look at the site however reveals that WindowsmarketPlace.com may not so much about information : Product descriptions are rather simple and lack the marketing language one would expect from such a service. The central feature of the service clearly is shopping. According to Patti Freeman Evans, an analyst with Jupiter Research, the listings are provided by Cnet, which also receives the revenue generated from retailers. Therefore, developers who want to get listed at WindowsMarketplace.com either have to get listed with Cnet or be a approved as developer of Windows compatible software.

A representative of Microsoft said that the company does not aim to compete in the comparison shopping market, a segment which traditionally has been covered by firms such as Shopping.com, Bizrate, Yahoo Shopping and MySimon. Recently the field has received more competition through Google’s Froogle and AOL’s Instore.com. Freeman Evans believes that it is rather a "brand enhancing strategy" to provide a one-stop-shopping experience for Windows users : "It is good to be your own resource for your own product. If a product is not listed on the site, it actually may not exist or not be compatible," she said.

Other than Froogle, WindowsMarketPlace.com is less likely to confuse its users. While patience is necessary with Froogle to find a particular product at a certain price, Microsoft has fewer sellers and products on its site, but presents its content in a structured and controlled way. However, the preview of the service also showed that Froogle’s massive content is more likely to lead users to a better deal and ultimately to more detailed information at least for now.

But we would agree that WindowsMarketPlace.com is a nicely designed website to offer a simple approach especially for mom and dad to find software or hardware for their computer. The (preview) site currently lists about 46,000 hardware and 87,500 software products.