Ask.com to boost product search with PriceRunner white label

Over at Revolution, Halyey Pinkerfield brings us the news that Ask.com is going to launch a white label of PriceRunner.co.uk as part of their effort to boost their shopping search.

Let's take a step back here. You might first wonder what Ask.com is doing with PriceRunner.co.uk. Well; over here in the UK Ask.co.uk is branded as Ask.com An easy way to see this is in the Google SERPs were the .co.uk listing has the .com title.

So, we're probably only looking at Ask UK bringing in PriceRunner.co.uk.



Does this boost their shopping search? Not really. Ask aren't enhancing their shopping search system at all - they're getting someone else to do it. However, this will boost their Christmas shopping search revenues and that can only be a good thing for the search engines.

In addition to a bit more cash it also lets Ask UK play around with the best way of integrating shopping search to their site. You could think of the PriceRunner deal as a toe in the water. If Ask can see how much money they could make from shopping search then perhaps that'll help them decide whether they want to invest in their own technology.

The PriceRunner deal is a good idea. I just wish Ask would reconsider its branding a little.