TheFind launches “buying engine,” product search from 500,000 stores

October 14th, 2009

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TheFind, a Mountain View, Calif-based startup that applies machine learning and semantic search to shopping, says comparison buying sites only skim the surface of all the millions of products out there on the web.

So it’s launching a “buying engine” today that crawls half a million stores for products and coupons. The site shows reviews alongside products and highlights coupons. It attaches store information in a pop-up that shows the sellers trust and security ratings. There is also a “green” search for environmentally conscious products.

“The truth of why none of the other comparison shopping sites have ultimately become successful brands is because they don’t offer everyone,” said Ron Levi, the vice president of product for TheFind. “When you’re only showing 10 or 15 stores out of hundreds, it’s just not comprehensive.”

TheFind is backed by at least $26.5 million in three rounds of funding from Redpoint Ventures, Lightspeed Venture Partners and Bain Capital Ventures. Levi said the site has 13.5 million unique visitors a month and hit cash flow profitability in December of last year.

The company is one of many comparison shopping sites we covered way back in 2007. But its competitors like Shopping.com (owned by eBay), Shopzilla (owned by Scripps) and Pricegrabber (bought by Experian) aren’t independent. The company earns revenue from affiliate fees so when a user actually buys a product, TheFind earns a small portion of that. It also earns income from clicks when users are driven to other comparison shopping sites.
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