<http://schema.org/articleBody>
"Just in time for the holiday shopping season, Retrevo has launched what it likes to call \u201Cthe lazy mans guide to shopping.\u201D  The site pulls together information on consumer electronics products from thousands of different web sites to try and offer users a comprehensive guide to buying things like big screen TVs and digital cameras, from start to finish.  \nEach product features what the company calls a \u201Cvalue map,\u201D plotting quality (as assessed from reviews on various sites) on one axis, and price on another.  Thus, if you\u2019re navigating the value map for a specific type of product \u2013 say 37-50 inch plasma TVs. \u2013 all of the items that Retrevo has indexed will show up on the map, allowing you to click different dots to see the details of the product.  You can also filter by low-end, mid-end, and high-end to further refine what displays in the value map.\n\nIn addition to pulling in data from e-commerce sites, Retrevo indexes articles from blogs, forums, and other web sites for further insight into products.  Retrevo already has a healthy database of this type of content, because for the past year they have been operating the site as a search-engine for consumer electronics products.  The site also includes how-to\u2019s and manuals, so once you\u2019ve bought your fancy new piece of electronics, you can use the site for support.  \nThe company\u2019s business model is two-fold: earning cost-per-click revenue for driving leads to consumer electronics retailers, and branded advertising for companies like Sony. Thus, even if you ultimately end up buying your item at the local Best Buy or Circuit City, Retrevo still makes money.  However, Retrevo says that listings are completely separate than advertising, thus maintaining an unbiased environment for users.\n\nOverall, Retrevo looks like a good starting point for consumer electronics if you don\u2019t really know what you\u2019re looking for.  There are a plethora of comparison shopping sites already out there, but the focus on consumer electronics does give Retrevo an interesting and big niche.  They\u2019ve also done a nice job of timing their launch right at the beginning of the holiday shopping season.   \nRetrevo has raised $5 million in funding from Alloy Ventures and Norwest Venture Partners.\n\n"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://mashable.com/2007/11/18/retrevo/>