More DEMO: Kaboodle's shopping-research assistant

Yet another Web-based service that's premiering at DEMO: Kaboodle, a tool for saving, comparing, and sharing product information as you shop online. When you're at a product-related site (like an online store or a reviews site like PCWorld.com), Kaboodle lets you use an "Add to Kaboodle" browser button which looks at the page, then creates a summary and link which it adds to your Kaboodle account. In some ways, it reminds me of some of the tools at Amazon.com--except Kaboodle is designed to work with the entire Web, not one shopping site.

Here are a couple of items I "Kaboodled" related to a particular digital camera:



Kaboodle lets you share these pages (multiple people can add information to one page, and can add comments and notes). It's free--the company hopes to make money by selling targeted ads with special offers relating to whatever you're researching--and while it's very definitely a beta, it's an intriguing one, especially if you ever make a buying decision online that involves multiple people. (I could see spouses finding it handy as they zero in on a new car.)

Next time I'm making a major purchase, I think I'll take for a spin...