Free software programs turn smart phones into search engines By ANDREW D. SMITH / The Dallas Morning News

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Free software programs turn smart phones into search engines By ANDREW D. SMITH / The Dallas Morning News

12:00 AM CST on Sunday, December 14, 2008


asmith@dallasnews.com

Shoppers can save big money with free software programs that turn smart phones into search engines.

[Click image for a larger version] JENN ACKERMAN/DMN
JENN ACKERMAN/DMN
The SnapTell Explorer application retrieves product listings from the iPhone's camera.

The new programs compare prices in stores with prices online and, in many cases, with prices in nearby stores.

For some of these applications, you have to type in product names or bar codes. Others use cellphone cameras or voice recognition software to speed up the process. All you have to do is hold the camera up to a product to get a quick price comparison.

As the technology gets easier to use, it's spreading from hard-core tech geeks to mainstream smart phone users.

In fact, an application called ShopSavvy now comes standard on phones that use Google's Android operating system.

"People who have ShopSavvy on their phones use it, on average, several times a day," said Alexander Muse, co-founder of Big in Japan, the Dallas company that makes ShopSavvy.

Right now, ShopSavvy only works on Android, but it should soon be available for iPhones, BlackBerrys and Windows Mobile handsets.

"We currently run about a million searches a day," Mr. Muse said, "but we expect that number to grow exponentially over the next year."

Users launch ShopSavvy by clicking on an icon and initiate a search by pointing the camera at a bar code.

The system can price nearly anything with a bar code: DVDs, video games, books, consumer electronics, kitchen appliances, groceries, anything.

Results, including prices from the Web and stores nearby, start arriving a couple of seconds after the scan.

How does ShopSavvy know which stores are nearby? It uses the GPS chip inside your phone to determine your location.

Big in Japan gets real-time inventory information from some big retailers, so ShopSavvy can often tell you how much a store charges for something and how many units are in stock.

When the program can't determine whether a product is in stock, it gives the store's phone number and offers to connect with a single click.

ShopSavvy has made a lot of headlines since it launched in September, but it's hardly the only price-comparison software.

Free programs from Amazon and SnapTell allow iPhone users to take pictures of entire products rather than bar codes.

Users who prefer to type can choose among a slew of programs that search online shopping sites for product names and bar codes.

One, Frucall, allows people with any type of cellphone to call a toll-free number, enter a bar code number and get a price quote.

If all that typing seems too hard, shoppers can use their voices to search.

Google just released a free iPhone application that allows you to speak queries rather than typing them. It's not specifically designed for bargain-hunting, but users who activate the program and speak a product name will get Google Shopping results.

People who prefer Yahoo Shopping can get that instead. Yahoo's Mobile Search program, which works on many types of phones, also has voice recognition.

What's more, a voice-recognition program called Vlingo gives iPhone users an easy way to access Yahoo search.

"Product search is one of the five most common things that people do with our mobile search," said Vlingo chief executive Dave Grannan.

"It only takes a couple seconds and – as anyone who has ever done price comparisons on the Web knows – it can save a lot of money."

The mobile shopping programs can make shopping for gifts much more efficient, but analysts say few shoppers will use them regularly this Christmas.

That may change as the programs get new features, such as the ability to instantly purchase products from the merchants that appear on the product searches.

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