October 18, 1999
Web posted at: 4:05 p.m. EDT (2005 GMT)

By D. Ian Hopper
CNN Interactive Technology Editor

(CNN) -- Father-and-son team Yossi and Arik Vardi revolutionized instant Internet communication with ICQ, the powerful desktop tool that brought individual Internet users together when AOL users were the only ones that knew the fun of instant messages. Now Yossi has teamed with a second son, Oded, in an attempt to spark another revolution.

This revolution is one of e-commerce. Their company, Tel Aviv-based R U Sure, on Sunday released a free public beta of the R U Sure Shopping Agent. The Shopping Agent sits in the Windows system tray and wakes up when a user visits a supported e-commerce site. Once a user drills down to a specific product the Agent pops on the screen and begins querying competitor's sites for the same product. After the customizable search ends -- along with some cute sound effects -- the Agent returns the best price found for that product along with a link directly to the competitor's page for the product.

Still in beta form, the Shopping Agent works very well. The categories for direct comparison are limited -- books, toys, computer hardware, movies and music -- but more are on the way. There are anywhere from 20 to 50 individual vendors in each category, all the biggies plus many you've never heard of. Any or all can be queried in the comparison-shopping search.

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While there are many different comparison-shopping sites on the Internet -- such as Pricewatch, Bottom Dollar and Shopping.com -- R U Sure is unique in that the power resides on the user's desktop. Competitors have computers that check vendor sites and return the results to users on a Web page. R U Sure becomes almost second-nature to the user because it just appears when the user visits a supported site. Also, the searching is done by the agent on the user's computer, rather than by R U Sure. This ensures that the search is done in real time in order to get the most recent prices.

Even more surprising is that R U Sure has no agreements with any of the vendors its product searches. The sites' pages aren't changed to give special information to the search agent, which is the innovation of R U Sure. The agent is simply taught to be able to search a particular site.

"The core technology is similar to sending a person to a store and having him come back to tell you the prices," said Oded Vardi, who handles business development and marketing for R U Sure. "Our agent was taught how to find the relevant information for the sites."

A user will also notice a lack of advertising on either the agent or the R U Sure site. Some comparative shopping sites get "bounties," a fee for bringing a unique user to a vendor's site, sales commissions or place targeted ads. R U Sure has none of these. They've made the risky, yet admirable, decision to put off choosing a revenue stream in favor of concentrating on the product.

"We're focusing on distributing the client, and we're still examining business models. We believe we're flexible enough that when the time is right, we can adopt any of these business models. Right now, we feel it will be a distraction. When you have a business model, you consciously and subconsciously change the product to fit your financial needs. Right now we just want to provide the best product we can provide."

R U Sure also has provided links on its site to its shopping competitors in an attempt to become a full-service shopping portal. But even while the company is being so trusting, Vardi isn't worried that their free and unique product will be stolen by competitors.

"We believe that we have a significant lead time. But when you expose yourself on the Web, it's a risk you have to take."

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