Fix
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Fixed Facebook login
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28 Aug 2017 |
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| The Facebook login process was updated to support changes made by the Facebook developers. |
Update
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Added In-Store Sessions
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22 Feb 2016 |
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For anyone capturing product prices using the nice In-Store Capture feature, there is a new improvement that tracks a "session" of capture. Once you've entered a store and a basket, while you're active on the site, your capture activity is remembered, so that you can see the list updated to show items you've successfully captured.
The feature sorts the products into four categories: "To Do" for prices you haven't captured yet, "On Special" for products on special that shouldn't be captured (please don't, as we don't know when the special expires), "Not Found" for items you couldn't find, and "Done" for prices that have been successfully captured.
The In-Store Capture feature is only available to logged-on users in order to prevent abuse. |
Tweak
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Simplified Chain Comparison
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03 Nov 2015 |
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As promised, we created a simplified version of the Compare Chains page, which should be easier to read and more accessible to those not interested in the finer details.
We might do the same with Compare Stores, but there are some more complications around choosing regions that will slow this up. |
New
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Comparison Overhaul
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02 Nov 2015 |
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An obvious improvement has been applied to the comparison page, putting a time limit on how far back to go when considering prices. We've defaulted to 4 months, but you can configure this filter.
At the moment the comparison page is powerful but quite detailed, and we'll soon add a very simple version for everyone to understand. |
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New
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Prices into Moderation Queue
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29 Oct 2015 |
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We've amended the price capture from anonymous users so that all additions go through moderation by admin. This has been needed in order to prevent abuse. This limitation does not apply to users who are logged in with an account.
The powerful In-Store Capture feature is now only available to logged-on users. Creating an account is free and dead-easy using your Facebook profile, which gives us nothing more than your email address and name. |
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New
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In-Store Capture
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22 Oct 2015 |
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We've added a new page adder the "Contribute" menu, called "In-Store Capture". It's designed to make it dead-easy to do a quick capture while you're in a store, using your phone. The links are larger than normal, and there is a list of likely prices to choose from, based on previous track records.
The goal of the page is to help us track the prices of the Standard basket more regularly, which will allow us to run regular overall price comparisons between stores, building a monthly index. You can of course login and track your own basket too.
We'll refine the page in time so you can see which prices you've entered already while in the store.
Obviously the feature allows for fairly rapid abuse of the system. If this turns out to be a problem, it will become available only to logged-in users. |
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Update
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Traffic Remains Impressive
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08 Oct 2015 |
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We use Google Analytics to track how many visitors come to the site and what search terms they used in Google to find the pages.
It makes for great reading - it's very rewarding to know that visitors are looking for the exact information we're offering. Take a few search terms this week as an example:
"10kg rice at shoprite"
"1 kg of omo washing powder is how much"
"how much a 2kg sunlight hand washing powder"
"jungle oats so easy at shoprite?"
"shoprite how much is ariel cost"
These search results favour PriceShare very highly in Google, and knowing that we're having this kind of success is a motivator to keep on ticking away at a site that doesn't actually make any money. After all, being significant is what you want to wear as your badge of honour. |
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Tweak
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Adding Ads
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08 Oct 2015 |
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| PriceShare obviously costs money to run, with hosting costs ticking over each month, so we're adding Google Ad banners to help generate some income for the site. |
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Update
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Price Capture Continues
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09 Mar 2015 |
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PriceShare was created as a free site for the community to share prices of supermarket products and help us establish which supermarkets are the cheapest to shop at. Community contribution hasn't exactly been spectacular, but it's still coming through and we appreciate all the prices you can provide, for all of our benefit.
Admin continues to input prices, and you can use the comparison tools to compare supermarkets in the Durban area mostly. While supermarkets in the rest of South Africa are not yet on the system (we can add them as you need), you can take it as a fairly good bet that the same pricing trends continue around the country with regards to the major chains. |
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New
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Feature Blogs
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16 Jul 2014 |
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We have added a new blog section, where we post commentaries and analysis, and summarise feedback we have received on stores and products.
First up we've posted a price analysis of KwikSPAR Hillcrest. We've posted to Facebook, with a request for store ratings and comments. Let's see how well the feature garners interest and increases participation. |
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New
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Store Ratings & Comments
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12 Jul 2014 |
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You can now rate a store or leave comments describing your experiences. The ratings are added up to give each store an average rating.
Ratings are a way to get a picture of the quality of a store, rather than just the pricing. When we combine average rating with the level of pricing, we can get a picture of the ultimate factor: value.
Please feel free to go through the shops that you have visited and add a rating and/or a comment to describe your experiences there. |
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New
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Linked Products
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10 Jul 2014 |
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We can now link products that are usually the same price, but have variations like different flavours.
This is useful when only one flavour has the latest price, and you can take that price to guess the price of other flavours.
For now you'll see this information come up when you view a specific product, such as Pronutro 500g, and a section called "Linked Products" appears.
There is a possibility of always showing the latest linked price, but the risk is that we could indicate a store stocks a certain flavour, when they actually don't. As we build up stock, we'll revisit this issue. |
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Fix
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Compare List Fix
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09 Jul 2014 |
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| There was a bug in Chrome and IE where you could not remove stores or chains from the comparison list. This issue has now been resolved. |
Notice
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First Product Upload
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05 Jul 2014 |
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We've had our first product and price uploaded by an anonymous user, pointing out a great deal on ice cream at Oxford Hillcrest. We're looking forward to many more!
Remember that you can choose to stay anonymous or to receive credit for your work by logging in. We respect that some of our users prefer to stay anonymous, but it helps with tracking of potential abuse if we can verify that updates came from a bonafide user with good intentions. Also be aware that you can login and still remain anonymous. See the privacy section in Help for more detail.
The other benefit of logging in is that there may be rewards in due course for those users who contribute the most... watch this space! |
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New
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We're Live!
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05 Jul 2014 |
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We've finally notified our first target user base, the KZN Upper Highway area, and let's see how the user response goes.
This is a "beta" release, and we expect a few glitches, but hopefully first impressions won't be too bad, and we survive the fallout.
What we do need to do pretty quickly is fix the menus for mobile use. Working on that right away... |
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New
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Supermarkets Have Been Notified
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24 Jun 2014 |
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I have sent emails to all the major supermarket chains, asking for their positions on two issues.
Firstly, how they feel about shoppers recording prices at their supermarkets. What I'm hoping for is a friendly response that I can issue to our users, so that they don't feel threatened when they visit a supermarket.
Secondly, I'm checking if there are any supermarkets willing to share their product or price data. I imagine it would be unlikely, but it doesn't hurt to try. I would think that cheaper supermarkets like Oxford would see it in their best interests to use this opportunity to advertise.
Let's see if any responses come back. |
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Update
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Prices, Prices, Prices
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24 Jun 2014 |
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The first uptake of price data is seriously under way. I've been frequenting Upper Highway supermarkets and taking down a ton of prices, and at the same time working out some kinks in the site.
We now have 201 products in the system, with a long way to go obviously.
The reality is that I need help with receipts to really kick progress along, but if I push marketing too early with a weak database, the user response might be a little underwhelming. So for now I'm pushing for a core section of data for a few days. |
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New
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All Systems Go
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23 Jun 2014 |
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PriceShare beta is ready for action. The development phase is complete and the site has been tested.
What remains before the big marketing push is to get a decent amount of price data into the system, and then we'll be pushing the concept to Facebook and friends first of all.
Right now you can navigate around the site like a normal user. Most of the content is available without a login, but you'll need one if you're going to create a custom basket, or if you want credit for your contributions to the price data.
Please report any bugs/issues/concerns, either via "Contact Admin" or by creating a Forum topic where we can discuss the issues. |
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New
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First Live Deployment
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17 Jun 2014 |
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After a period of core development for 3-4 weeks, PriceShare has been deployed to a live server, and the site is now available to anyone who hits the url.
The configuration of the site will continue now, followed by an initial upload of prices. Once there is enough data to provide a decent first user experience, the marketing push will begin. |
