Tripp Fenderson

jellyfish.com have opened their doors, claiming to be “the Internet’s first buying engine.”

(I wonder if they’ve heard of Amazon.com [yes, it’s a store - but it’s also a search engine], coolsavings.com and countless others?)

From their site:

Sure we make it simple for you to find the right product from a trusted merchant. But we also do something really different too: We share our revenue with you. Think of us like a Robin-Hood-like search engine that takes a percentage of the revenue you generate through your buying activity and redistributes it to you. I bet your search engine has never done that!

Ok - I’ll bite. What kind of cash back can I get on an Xbox and some games? First let’s head over to the games section.

The classic Space Invaders background is a nice touch.

Let’s see what’s for sale in the Xbox category though.

Ouch!

0 products found for the console and accessories (for both the Xbox and the Xbox 360). (What? Microsoft didn’t want to sell consoles through jellyfish.com? Surprising.)

420 games were found for the Xbox.

However, after looking through the actual game list and prices, I found the following to be true:

• The selection of games was fair - but damned if I could figure out how they were organized!!! It would have been more helpful to offer the initial list in alphabetical or price order.
• The companies represented as sellers were not ones I would buy games from anyway. (Circuit City, Best Buy, PC Connection and ShoppersChoice) All of them are pretty well known for having higher prices, which leads in to the next point
• The prices were higher than what I’d paid on games in the past (even with the “generous” cash back incentive)
• Speaking of incentives...getting $0.92 back on a purchase is not an incentive. That’s as lame as companies “graciously” offering a 10% off coupon.

I’m not sure that I’ll be shopping with them (for games anyway) - but I will grant that they have a good perspective on the current state of online advertising.