Next Generation Shopping

Finally a Half.com API?  I just got word that the Half.com product inventory will now be available through the eBay Shopping Web Services.  It seems that it is actually just an additional API call (FindHalfProducts) rather than a full API itself.  I (and other developers) have been wondering for some time now why eBay hasn’t made this feature available to its web publisher and developer network. 

This API feature had been slated for release during July ‘07 according to the eBay Road Map.

More news coming next week.  Right from the e-mail:

• How does this help me?

  • Half.com product and pricing information will now be available via a Shopping API returning data in near real time. This will allow you to provide your shoppers with accurate and up-to-date information.
• Where can I get more information?
  • Information will be available at developer.ebay.com. The API name is “FindHalfProducts” and it is available as a Shopping Services API.
• How do I sign up and begin ramping up using the API?
  • Signing up is simple and free: You must have a developer account at developer.ebay.com. Documentation for the new FindHalfProducts API will be available at:
    developer.ebay.com/DevZone/shopping/docs/CallRef/index.html
• When will this be available?
  • We are shooting for the API to be available next week! Watch for a follow-up notice to announce availability!

Web Publishers: Half.com has a separate affiliate program running on CJ.

Shopping.com had a big announcement at the eBay Developers Conference. A complete revamp of the API is in place (version 3). The new API will support REST and SOAP protocol formats. Phase I is to be released in mid-August, with a feature set focused on search type integrations. The product specs and reviews will not be included in the initial phase. The rest of the functionality for the API will be released in Q1 ’08. The current API will remain available for at least one year after the new API is fully released (estimated Q1 ’09). Documentation for the new API is slated to be released in Mid-to-Late July.

They’ve added a new part of their site dedicated to their partner developer network. For starters they’ve launched a blog and application gallery located at http://developer.shopping.com. Planned for Q3 are several enhancements including Forums, Documentation, Sample Code and a Knowledge Base.

With the added protocol support and documentation, this should continue to give Shopping.com the edge as the strongest API overall in comparison shopping industry.

I’ll be sure to continue coverage as they roll it out. More on the eBay Developers blog.

Today I received notice “PriceRunner is pleased to offer qualified publishers access to its newly updated API Feed and Shopping Banner Widgets.”  I was obviously interested to know more about it, so I called their marketing manager directly.  A couple hours later their GM of PriceRunner US called me back to personally answer my questions.  Wow, impressive.  So here is what I got out of it…

PriceRunner has launched a competitve API service for web publishers in the shopping industry.  Apparently PriceRunner has had an API for about a year now (and I found this comment that dates back to September 2005). 

PriceRunner has sites in Sweden, France, Germany, UK, and the US.  They rank  #1 for shopping comparison in Sweden and Denmark, and near the top of other European countries.  You can become a partner to any of their sites via Commission Junction.

I have not yet played with the API, but I am told that it functions the same for all countries.  Since they cover a lot of countries this is very nice feature for expanding your own development outside the US.  Also another nice feature is there are no current restrictions on API calls. Read more »

Affiliate networks are so far behind in technology it isn’t even funny.  Specifically I’d like to see some improvements to their reporting systems.

• Web Services access to reporting data.  Currently, CJ will export reports for you and upload them to FTP or allow you to download them.  Its a waste of bandwidth when you are getting more than you need.  Web services would allow getting the right reporting data at the right time.  End-users can then build their own customized reporting systems.
• Ability to filter (not just sort) reports by sub-id (SID in CJ, u1 in LinkShare)
• LinkShare - Ability to select date range of reports by Transaction Date or Process Date (like in CJ).  The data is present, there is no reason for this option not be implemented.
• LinkShare - A RSS feed or easier way (could easily be a Web Service call) to access which Merchants have paid for the month.  Or be more like CJ and just take payments ahead of time.

I don’t think I’m asking too much here.

Duplicate content issues affect a variety of webmasters including: the affiliate marketer, the mashup developer, and the E-Commerce store manager.

Here are some prime examples:

• Affiliate site with product descriptions coming from Merchant datafeeds
• Shopping mashup where the product information comes from partner(s) Web Services / APIs.
• E-Commerce store where product inventory information comes from a partner or supplier.

What do all of these scenarios have in common? They all can suffer greatly from duplicate content. If you are using a content source that is widely used, chances are your site is probably going to be seen as having duplicate content by the search engines. The best way I can tell you to look at duplicate content is by measuring your own value added. If your site is adding no further value to the content source it is generally not going to be liked by the search engines, and rightly so. From a consumer standpoint we don’t need 100 affiliate websites to appear first in Google with all the same exact content.

From what I gather there is no 100% solution. One suggestion in the session was Read more »

CNET recently launched an API at the start of the month.  I must be out of the loop because I didn’t know about it until my brother mentioned it to me.  The API allows access to its suite of products including CNET Shopper and Download.com.  From CNET:

“Referred to as the CNET API, this service will make a wealth of data available to the mashup community in the creation of rich consumer sites. The initial dataset will include CNET’s full catalog of technology products and software titles. This is the same dataset that drives the highly trafficked sites of CNET Reviews, Shopper.com and Download.com. Over time, the API will add news articles, community content, blog posts and full product reviews.”

Ok… To the good stuff.  Obviously it was launched as “beta”, so I wasn’t expecting too much, but I was eager to try it right away.  The whole shopping dataset portion didn’t work — at all.  Aside from the fact that “beta” no longer has any meaning, I decided to wait it out.  I came back to the CNET Dashboard today, and this time it was working (lucky me).  The API is REST and supports both XML and JSON.  I’d prefer SOAP, but no biggy.  At first glance the CNET API structure seems to have some similarities to the Shopping.com API.  The added value comes from the Editors’ Rating, the Editors’ Choice, and the Good/Bad/Bottom Line commentary.  Overall, CNET seems to be on track with this offering, and I’m pretty excited to see where they go with it.

Pros: REST, Tech Only (Focused), Editors’ Rating / Choice, Bottom-Line Commentary
Cons: Tech Only (Narrow), Beta

My initial questions: Where do I find additional documentation?  Plans for Revenue Sharing?

Aside from the Shopper data, the access to their Software (Download.com) data is pretty sweet, but I was unable to figure out how to do a keyword-search query.

Now CNET, Yahoo! Shopping and Shopping.com all provide generally accessible comparison shopping API access.  PriceGrabber and Shopzilla still seem to be hiding in the shadows.

Commission Junction recently announced a new version of their Web Services, which now supports Microsoft .NET.

New Web Services page
http://help.cj.com/en/web_services/web_services.htm

WSDL List (Current version 1.1)
http://api.cj.com/

They include some rough documentation on how to utilize the code for a Windows Application (C# or VB.NET) using Visual Studio 2005.

Here is a very quick overview of how to utilize it with a Web Application using Visual Studio 2003.  This demonstrates using their Product Search method used to grab product data from merchants.

1) Start a new VB.NET Application or Web Application
2) Add a new Web Reference
Enter http://api.cj.com/wsdl/rpc_encoded/productSearchService.wsdl
And Hit Go
3) Name it CJProductSearch (or whatever you want)
4) Copy the performProductSearch function included in the sample code package to your Webform1.aspx.vb.
5) Change the Console.WriteLine entries to Response.Write
6) Fill in any test data.
7) Make a call to the performProductSearch from the Page_Load

That’s it.

Technorati Tags: CJ, Commission Junction, web services, API, affiliate network

buySafe just launched their API which has some nice functionality. Their API allows developers to “seamlessly integrate buySAFE trust signaling into retail Websites, marketplaces, and third-party shopping applications.”

I see a great usage for eBay API developers who want to show auction/marketplace listings and enable their end-users to feel safe about going through to eBay and making a purchase.

Their developer area has some good information about each of their API offerings. The main protocol of the Web Service is SOAP, which should make integration easy.

I’ll post more coverage once I’ve fooled with the API.

Read the full story here.

Technorati Tags: buysafe, web services, api, ecommerce, trust, marketplace, retail, ebay

Commission Junction has launched a Web Service to allow Publishers’ real-time access to their Product Catalog database, as well as, to search for links. Prior to this, only LinkShare offered a Link Locator Direct web service that allows Link Searching functionality (no Product Catalog access). I think the CJ API is a huge step for an affiliate network, and have often wondered why it has taken this long. To get you started they provide some example code in Flash and PHP, but not .NET. Below is a list of the current features just released:

• Product Catalog Access – This API offers real-time access to the Product Catalog database. Using it, you can find a product or group of products to display on your site since the API enables keyword searches as well as item specific searches by UPC, manufacturer, model number, advertiser, SKU and more.

• Link Search Functionality – Publishers can use this API to search for links through a SOAP interface using a set of parameters to return link results that include information like their relationship status and link code that can be used to capture publisher referrals. In addition, you can find the perfect link for display on your site using search options that are very similar to those available via the CJ Account Manager™, including searching by link type and size, advertiser, language and other link attributes.

• Advertiser Search Functionality – This API allows publishers to search for advertisers through a SOAP interface using a set of parameters to return advertiser results that include information such as their relationship status and program terms with the advertiser.


Here is an example of what can be made using flash with the Product Catalog Access:

I just signed up for a developer key. I’ll post more once I toyed with the service.

Technorati Tags: CJ, Commission Junction, API, Web Service, Web Services, CJ Web Services, Affiliate Marketing

A while back I had posted a question about the ability to access eBay Express items via the Search function in the eBay API.  I haven’t checked out the call myself yet, but you can see on the eBay roadmap they have already begun to integrate the Express results.  Below are notes from the eBay Developer Roadmap:

• GetSearchResultsExpress (should be available now)
  The new GetSearchResultsExpress API call will allow developers to access Express-specific items, products and domain histograms.
• REST Support for GetSearchResultsExpress (September ‘06)
  Adds REST support for the GetSearchResultsExpress API call. Click here for details on the GetSearchResultsExpress API call.

I see this call as being be very useful specificly for mining marketplace item data from eBay.