"Unbiased" Product Recommendation Engine Launched

Active Research Inc., a provider of technology to automate market research, launched Active Buyer’s Guide, calling it “the most unbiased, comprehensive Web-based product recommendation engine on the Internet.”

Active Buyer’s Guide is designed to help consumers find products or services that best match their own values, needs and preferences, the company said. Active Research licenses Active Buyer’s Guide as an outsourced, privately labeled service to channel partners, such as portals and consumer information sites, who then offer it as a value-added service to their visitors.

“Because products are included independent of manufacturer or retailer participation, Active Buyer’s Guide provides the most comprehensive, objective product information on the Web today,” said Tom DuBois, CEO of Active Research.

Active Buyer’s Guide is able to replicate the consumer shopping experience, understanding and simulating the difficult trade-offs made while comparison- shopping, the company said. As a result, the service considers all of a shopper’s needs and preferences to recommend products with the highest value for each individual.

For example, Active Buyer’s Guide recognizes that a consumer shopping for a digital camera may be willing to pay more for certain desired features or trade certain features for others to get the right price. Its convenience eliminates the time consumers usually spend filtering through the vast product information available on the Web, the company said.

Active Buyer’s Guide is powered by Adaptive Recommendation Technology, proprietary sophisticated software that uses mathematical methodologies to simulate decisions that consumers would make if they were to examine every product available on the market, the company said.

It builds a unique behavior model for each individual. Complex data mining then matches products to the behavior model to deliver summary reports customized for that shopper.

For channel partners it is a hassle-free, “plug and play” service, the company said. It is hosted, operated and maintained from Active Research’s facilities. Active Research presently focuses Active Buyer’s Guide on sites servicing the consumer electronics industry, with particular focus on digital cameras and camcorders. Current partners include The Imaging Resource, PC-Photo Forum and SomethingNow Inc.