Google launches new tools to find and track shopping deals

The holidays are here again and for some that means its time to search out the best shopping deals.

With Black Friday just around the corner, Google has stepped in and launched a few new tools to help you with your deal hunting endeavors.

According to an announcement post on Google’s blog, the company has rolled out a slew of new features to help users find and track deals when shopping online.

First, Google has rolled out a new deals destination page right on its main search platform. Simply search “shop deals” and users will be taken to a shopping page full of discounts organized via scrollable product categories. If a user knows what they’re looking for, they can just type in the specific product alongside the “shop deals” search query and be taken directly to that Google deals page for the item.

The updated default new tab page with shopping features.
Credit: Google

Next up, Google has launched a few new shopping features specifically for Google’s Chrome web browser. When a user opens a new tab, the default page will provide the user with the latest deals and discounts for the previous product they were searching for. 

Price history now built directly into Google Chrome
Credit: Google

Google is also bringing its price history and tracking tool to Chrome. When a user is shopping for a product that Google has price history for, Chrome will notify the user in the address bar. The user can then open a sidebar within Chrome that will provide information about what the product normally sells for and a 90-day price history graph.

Google Chrome can now provide users with new discount codes when shopping for items.
Credit: Google

In addition to that, the Chrome web browser will also monitor price changes and coupons and inform users via notification in the browser’s address bar. Users can also opt to be regularly notified for specific products and even receive email notifications when an item drops in price.

For the deal-obsessed, many of these features might seem familiar. Services like PayPal’s Honey have provided price tracking and coupon notifications for some time now, so Google isn’t exactly inventing the wheel. However, Google has a lot of users and if those users can just easily do all the price tracking and coupon clipping natively on Google Search or in Chrome without the need for extensions, many of them will likely opt for that.

But that’s up to the big tech companies to duke it out. For users, a deal is a deal regardless of who tells them about it.