AOL Enters the Shopping Arena

DULLES, Va. – America Online announced the launch of an online shopping site it says will provide an easy and fast way to compare products from thousands of online merchants.

Called inStore, the company said the site is available on the AOL service at AOL Keyword: inStore and as a standalone destination on the Web at www.in-store.com.

The announcement of the Monday launch said the site’s shopping search functionality is supported by BizRate.com’s catalog of 25 million products and 48,000 merchants, one of the largest and most comprehensive catalogs available online.

It said an inStore Outlets area, to be launched later, will offer bargain shoppers brand name products at discounts from dozens of merchants.

I tried it out. Decent service. Nothing like AOL’s other products. I like their pinpoint shopping search tool. Though it’d be nice if it autohid itself after you search. Instead, you have to click the “close” button to get it out of the way of search results.

I’m also interested in how their “Shop over IM” with a buddy works.

In-store
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