GTE SuperPages.com, an online shopping
destination and Yellow Pages site, said it is building a searchable database
of ALL the products for sale on the Web.
To begin building the database, GTE recently released several “spiders” onto
the Internet. Those spiders are currently searching the Internet for all
e-commerce-enabled sites and indexing the products for sale on those sites,
the company said.
Using advanced patent-pending classification technology from GTE
Laboratories, GTE Directories Corp. is building the database, which will be
the foundation of SuperPages.com’s new shopping engine.
The shopping engine, which will be featured in the redesigned SuperPages.com
site available at the end of June, “will allow consumers for the first time
to obtain a complete list of the online storefronts that sell specifically
what they are looking for,” the company said.
Instead of searching all sites on the Web, GTE’s shopping engine retrieves
information from online shopping sites, allowing consumers to quickly locate
online merchants that sell a particular product without having to wade
through a large number of irrelevant and confusing links.
“If there is a product out there for sale, our shopping spiders will find it
— no matter who is selling it,” said Earl A. Goode, president of GTE
Directories. “SuperPages.com will change the online shopping experience by
offering an immediate and complete list of online merchants that is tailored
to meet the user’s specific needs.”
SuperPages.com says it currently receives over 4.5 million visits per month
and conducts more than 12 million Yellow Pages searches per month.