Buying Online? Be Froogle

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If you want to write a term paper, settle a bar bet or snoop into the past of that cute guy at the office, the best place to start has long been Google, the world's coolest search engine. But online shopping? Fuhgeddaboutit. Google had no way to distinguish websites that sold, say, CD players from those that simply wrote about them. Enter Froogle (at froogle.com) a Google offshoot devoted to shopping searches. Froogle weds the technologies that made Google great (ranking websites in order of usefulness, loading in a split second) with continually updated information from thousands of Web merchants. You can enter a price range and get pictures of products before clicking on the links. Best of all, merchants don't pay for prominent placement within results (a common practice at shopping search sites like Dealtime.com and Bizrate.com) Although it's still in beta, or test, mode--and so far lacks the option to list the cheapest results first--Froogle is in good enough shape to help you navigate the postholiday sales from the comfort of home. Maybe you can find something for the cute guy at the office. --By Chris Taylor