Michelle Slatalla suffers from a shopping disease. It’s called pricenoia. The characteristic symptom is a pang of doubt every time she’s about to press Click-to-Buy on Amazon.com:

“I wonder: Would this book cost me less if I bought it from Amazon’s British site at Amazon.co.uk? Or from Amazon.de? Or from its Japanese site at Amazon.co.jp? I answer the question at Pricenoia.com. Type the name of the book you want to buy into the search box on Pricenoia.com’s homepage and the site will calculate exchange rates and compare prices (including shipping) at all Amazon sites.

For instance, we found we could save two bucks if we bought In Cold Blood from the UK rather than the US.

Not just books, DVDs, music, video games, electronics, camera & photo, and computer software fall within Pricenoia’s provenance as well.

Given this new resource, perhaps pricenoia should be reclassified as agoraphilia.

UPDATE: misskaz points out Book Burro, a handy Firefox extension that “magically senses when you are viewing a book online and pulls up a little agent that searches for prices elsewhere on the web. Also, if your local library online search is compatible, it will indicate if the book is available there.”

Paranoia? Try Pricenoia [Michellepedia] (Thanks to Scott!)

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